ACEs, Attachment, Resilience and Trauma in Forensic Inpatient Settings

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Understanding complex trauma presentations within adult forensic inpatient settings: exploring the mediating relationships between adverse childhood experiences, attachment, resilience and psychological distress in adulthood.

• IRAS ID

  271086

• Contact name

  Chris Hartwright

• Contact email

  HartwrightC@cardiff.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Cardiff University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 7 months, 29 days

• Research summary

  Research has demonstrated that having adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a negative impact on both mental and physical health in adulthood. These experiences may include emotional, physical, sexual abuse or neglect, witnessing domestic or community violence or living with caregivers that misuse substances or have been to prison. These may result in someone having poorer mental health, struggling to maintain relationships and having poorer physical health as an adult. Research has shown that people in forensic inpatient settings are more likely to have experienced ACEs and have more mental health difficulties than that of the general population.
  Research has also shown however that there are some factors that can 'buffer' the impact of ACEs, such as having better social bonds and being more resilient. One study has demonstrated a link between poor attachment and increased psychological distress in forensic settings, yet there is very little understanding of the mediating relationship between ACEs, attachment and resilience and later life trauma symptomology and psychological distress. This project hopes to explore these relationships and investigate whether independent factors such as attachment style or resilience are mediators of current trauma symptoms or psychological distress. It is hoped this will result in a better understanding of the impact of childhood trauma and how to reduce this, as well as how to support populations where these experiences are more common and consider how services deliver care to meet these specific support needs.

• REC name

  Wales REC 1

• REC reference

  19/WA/0290

• Date of REC Opinion

  30 Oct 2019

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion