Tara Collins Samples completes dissertation in the School of Psychology

The Protective Effects of Resilience Against Suicide Behaviors Among Trauma Exposed Low-Income African American Women: A Moderated Mediation Study, Tara Collins Samples

Low-income African American women are exposed to a disproportionate number of potentially traumatizing events, and have been demonstrated to experience high levels of childhood maltreatment and subsequently develop symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. Previous studies have also demonstrated that Major Depression (MDD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms mediate suicidal behavior among adults exposed to childhood maltreatment. The current study sought to explore the moderating role of psychological resilience on ameliorating this mediation. A logistic-regression based path-analysis framework was used to investigate the moderation of resilience through the mediation of PTSD and MDD on the relationship between child maltreatment and adult suicidal behavior. The results from this study suggest that resilience may be a protective factor mitigating the risk of suicidal behavior associated with childhood maltreatment in the presence of PTSD but that resilience does not ameliorate the impact of MDD on suicidal behavior associated with childhood maltreatment. Results further demonstrate that the resilience is most effective for individuals exposed to one and two types of childhood maltreatment, but is less protective at higher levels of maltreatment.

Key Words: Resilience, Suicide, Buffering Hypothesis, Child Maltreatment, Low-Income African American Women