1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«[T]he goal of the present study is to determine whether the cumulation of psychiatric disorders contributes to explaining increased pregnancy complications observed in teenagers who were sexually abused in childhood while controlling for confounding factors, namely the age at first pregnancy.» (p. 2)

Questions/Hypothèses :
The authors «hypothesize that in comparison to teenagers from the general population, teenagers who were sexually abused will present more psychiatric disorder comorbidities, which in turn will explain their increased risk for pregnancy complications.» (p. 2)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The data sets used in this matched-cohort study come from a larger study in which Daigneault et al. (2017) compared mental and physical health problems of abused children with those from the general population over ten years following the sexual abuse report. The present study sample is comprised of 661 girls from Daigneault et al. (2017) study who have been the subject of a corroborated childhood sexual abuse report and 661 girls with whom they were matched from the general population, who represent 75% of the original sample as 25 % were boys. The average age at the first sexual abuse report in the abused group was 11.42 […].» (p. 3)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

Results of this study «suggest that psychiatric comorbidity carries 25 % of the relative risk for pregnancy complications in sexually abused teenagers.» (p. 6) In addition, the more the teenagers presented «psychiatric comorbidities after the corroborated report of sexual abuse, the higher was the subsequent risk of presenting pregnancy complications. Indeed, the results show that the severity of the psychological distress or its pervasiveness seems to explain subsequent pregnancy complications later in life.» (p. 7) According to the authors, «the support of foster care families or a partner’s family could make a positive difference in the life of teen mothers who have been maltreated. Hence, offering specific trauma-informed care to survivors, and providing a safe environment to establish a trusting relationship between caregiver and patient could potentially mitigate outcomes of pregnancy complications. Consistent with Pennebaker and Susman’s inhibition-disease model (1988) disclosing, discussing, and confronting trauma might reduce psychosomatic diseases, minimizing consequences of inhibition and avoidance of thoughts and emotions related to trauma.» (p. 8)