Despite widespread findings that various forms of child maltreatment are associated with long-term psychological difficulties, not all victims experience similar-or any-lasting difficulties following abuse. Thus, a burgeoning area of research focuses on factors that may facilitate resiliency to the psychological effects of child maltreatment. Prominent among these factors is social support. To date, however, the vast majority of studies examining the impact of social support on resilience have utilized self-report measures to gauge levels of cognitively appraised, or perceived, social support from friends, family, and spouses. Despite the limitations of self-report methods, few studies have used observational methods to study the buffering effects of actual, or received, spousal social support. Additionally, it is currently unclear whether the buffering impact of spousal social support found more broadly in the marital literature is generalizable to psychological distress experienced by adult survivors of child maltreatment. It is also unclear how negative social support (i.e. criticism, blaming) impacts the relationship between child maltreatment and psychological distress. Thus, using a community sample of newlywed couples, the present study examines the moderational impact of spousal social support on both concurrent and longitudinal relationships between child maltreatment (i.e., physical, sexual, psychological abuse;neglect) and psychological functioning. The Social Support Interactive Coding System, will be used to assess social support behaviors observed during a dyadic discussion task. Analyses will examine the role of spousal social support in moderating psychological distress (i.e. depression, trauma symptoms, and global distress). Results of this study are expected to reveal that positive social support moderates associations between child maltreatment and psychological distress such that victims who receive a higher proportion of positive social support will experience less concurrent and subsequent psychological distress. Conversely, it is also expected that negative social support will moderate associations between child maltreatment and psychological distress such that victims who receive a high proportion of negative social support will also display higher concurrent and subsequent psychological distress.
Findings from this study are expected to contribute to a broader understanding of the risk and resiliency processes that underlie psychopathology in adult victims of child maltreatment. An understanding of these processes will have important implications for public health by aiding in the development of effective treatment interventions for adult maltreatment survivors experiencing psychological distress.
