Abstract
Abused children often develop externalizing problems and substance abuse disorders later in life. The present study describes correlates of childhood abuse and heroin addiction with particular attention to the role of behavioral self-regulation and types of maltreatment. Self-regulation is operationalized as having factors ofimpulsivity, aggression, and inattention. 130 opiate addicts and matched controls completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Buss Durkee Hostility Scale, and the Barratt Impulsivity Scale. It was hypothesized that maltreatment and self-regulation would predict addiction and that the type and severity of maltreatment would predict the type and extent of self-regulation problems. Results supported the hypotheses. The Addict group differed from the Control group on measures of self-regulation and nonsexual maltreatment but not on measures of sexual abuse, SES, IQ or demographics. As hypothesized, self-regulation was a significant predictor of addiction in hierarchical regressions even after accounting for the effect of gender, IQ, and SES. Nonsexual childhood maltreatment was a significant predictor of addiction. However, when self-regulation was added to the prediction, maltreatment was no longer significant and only self-regulation predicted addict status. Nonsexual abuse was a significant predictor of self-regulation, after controlling for IQ, gender, and SES. Canonical correlation analysis indicates that nonsexual abuse is more strongly related to behavioral self-regulation than sexual abuse. Results suggest that self-regulation has an important role in the development of heroin addiction in survivors ofcertain types of childhood maltreatment. iii Department ofHuman Services Curry School Of Education University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia APPROVAL OF THE DISSERTATION This dissertation, "Childhood Abuse and Self-regulation: Risk Factors for Heroin Addiction," has been approved by the Graduate Faculty of the Curry School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Peter L. Sheras, Ph.D., Advisor Richard R. Abidin, Ed.D Bruce Gansneder, Ph.D. Claudia Sowa, Ph.D.
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