1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«[T]he specific purpose of the present study is to evaluate the relation between retrospective accounts of child maltreatment and social support perceived in emerging adulthood among women care leavers, by considering the indirect path through cognitive schemas.» (p. 621)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The present study is derived from a broader, longitudinal study of 182 French-speaking adolescent girls in Montreal, Quebec, who had been placed in residential care (Lanctôt, 2010). […] Out of the 182 adolescent girls who were included in the longitudinal design, 132 (73.6%) completed the last point of measurement in emerging adulthood. The present study deals only with these remaining 132 participants at this specific point in their lives (Time 6 of the study).» (p. 621)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The «results showed, first of all, that the more severe the child maltreatment that the young women retrospectively reported, the less social support they perceived as available to them in emerging adulthood. […] This finding suggests that the more severe the retrospective accounts of child maltreatment were, the more the young women believe that their actual needs for security, stability, affection, empathy, understanding, approval, and respect will not be met, that is, they will more likely endorse maladaptive cognitive schemas in the disconnection/rejection domain.» (p. 623-624) The «findings identify maladaptive cognitive schemas in the disconnection/rejection domain as promising targets for interventions to overcome the negative relationship between maltreatment and social support. This suggests that programs and services must go beyond identifying social support networks for young women care leavers, and considerable effort should be devoted to helping them develop the skills they need to build and maintain trusting relationships with significant people. Interventions should help these young women replace their idealization of independence with an ideal of interdependence and teach them how to engage emotionally in mutually meaningful relationships.» (p. 625)