• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.155-162
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• 2024

Objectives: Childhood maltreatment can negatively impact cognitive development, including executive function, working memory, and processing speed. This study investigated the impact of childhood maltreatment on cognitive function in young adults using various measurements, including computerized tests, and their relationship with emotional dysregulation. Methods: We recruited 149 healthy individuals with and without maltreatment experiences and used the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV (WAIS-IV) and a computerized battery to analyze cognitive function. Results: Both the WAIS-IV and computerized tests revealed that individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment had decreased cognitive function, especially in terms of working memory and processing speed. These individuals tended to employ maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Among cognitive functions, working memory is negatively related to maladaptive emotion regulation strategies such as catastrophizing. Conclusion: This study highlights the effects of childhood maltreatment on cognitive function in young adulthood. Moreover, the study suggests clinical implications of cognitive interventions for improving emotion regulation and cognitive function in individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.59
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• pp.183-208
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to identify groups depending on the change trajectory of child maltreatment in childhood and early adolescence. For this study, the data from waves two through six (2011-2015) of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) were used. Participants included first-grade (n=2,300) and fourth-grade (n=2,325) elementary school students. A latent class growth model (LCGM) using Mplus 7.21 was adopted to classify the types of developmental trajectories of child maltreatment. The main results were as follows: First, in physical abuse, childhood from the second to the sixth grades was classified into four groups: decreased, low maintenance, increased, and no maltreatment type. In addition, early adolescence from the fifth grade of elementary school to the third grade of middle school was also classified into the same types. Second, in emotional abuse, childhood was classified into three groups: decreased, increased, and no maltreatment type. Early adolescence was classified into four groups: decreased, low maintenance, increased, and no maltreatment type. Third, in neglect, childhood was classified into four groups: maintenance, low decreasing, low increasing, and no maltreatment type. Early adolescence was classified into three groups: maintenance, low increasing, and no maltreatment type. According to the change of child maltreatment by developmental period, physical abuse continued from childhood to early adolescence, whereas emotional abuse and neglect increased in early adolescence compared to childhood. This study is meaningful in classifying latent classes depending on maltreatment types. Theoretical and practical implications were suggested based on the study results.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.115-134
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• 2015

The main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between latent classes of childhood maltreatment and depression anxiety and aggression from childhood to adolescence. 1,785 participants in a sample form Seoul Panel Study of Children were used in this study. Using latent class analysis, three classes of child maltreatment were identified: 'low maltreatment'(89.2%), 'physical+emotional abuse+neglect'(1.9%), 'physical+emotional abuse'(8.9%). Three developmental trajectories of depression anxiety were classified: 'low depression anxiety'(72.3%), 'moderate depression anxiety'(23.3%), 'high depression anxiety'(4.4%). Two developmental trajectories of aggression were revealed: 'low aggression'(89.3%), 'high aggression'(10.7%). As estimated by latent transition probability, the multiple maltreatment classes were more likely to have higher levels of depression anxiety or aggression than the no maltreatment class. There appeared to be distinct profiles of maltreatment among adolescents that had differential associations to measures of internal and external problems. The implications for both practice and policy implications are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 2024

Stress is a natural state that emerges due to the dynamics of an individual's life. Children must learn how to effectively manage stress as part of their growth and development. Resolution is possible when children are exposed to stress and receive adequate support from their families. However, when stress is intense, frequent, protracted, or traumatic, as in cases of childhood abuse, it can become toxic and interfere with the development of the child's brain and body. This results in vulnerability, which can have detrimental effects on the child's overall physical, mental, and emotional health. This perspective discusses the impact of childhood maltreatment and toxic stress, drawing on insights gained during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to shed light on the lessons learned from this unique and challenging period and how they inform our understanding of the effects of stress on children's well-being.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.113-131
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• 1995

The objectives of this study were to investigate (1) the relations between infant-mother attachment and maternal sensitivity, maltreatment, stress, and childhood experience, and (2) relations between infant-mother attachment and infant temperament. The subjects of the study were 55 14 to 20 month-old infants (27 boys and 28 girls) and their mothers in Seoul. In order to assess the patterns of infant-mother attachment, each infant-mother dyad was videotaped in the modified Ainsworth's Strange Situation. Each dyad was filmed for 3 minutes in the Questionnaire Situation of Smith and Pederson(Smith, & Pederson, 1988) to assess maternal sensitivity responding to infant's cues. Each mother also was interviewed by using a semi-structured questionnaire made by author to measure maternal maltreatment. Each mother was asked to complete three Likert-type questionnaires, containing Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin, 1990) to measure the maternal stress, Mother-Father Peer Scale (MFPS) (Epstein, 1983) to measure childhood experience, and Emotionality, Activity, Sociality (EAS) (Buss, & Plomin, 1984) to measure infant's temperament. The statistical procedures used for data analyses were correlation, one-way ANOVA, multiple regression, and Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient. The results showed that (1) mothers of insecure-avoidant infants maltreated their infants more than mothers of secure infants, and (2) in the multiple regression analysis, maternal maltreatment was predicted by maternal education, maternal stress (parent domain), and maternal childhood experience in relation to her own mother (acceptance vs. rejection).

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2022

Objectives Maltreatment experiences can alter brain function related to emotion regulation, such as cognitive reappraisal. While dysregulation of emotion is an important risk factor to mental health problems in maltreated people, studies reported alterations in brain networks related to cognitive reappraisal are still lacking. Methods Twenty-seven healthy subjects were recruited in this study. The maltreatment experiences and positive reappraisal abilities were measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, respectively. Twelve subjects reported one or more moderate maltreatment experiences. Subjects were re-exposed to pictures after the cognitive reappraisal task using the International Affective Picture System during fMRI scan. Results The maltreatment group reported more negative feelings on negative pictures which tried cognitive reappraisal than the no-maltreatment group (p < 0.05). Activities in the right superior marginal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus were higher in the maltreatment group (uncorrected p < 0.001, cluster size > 20). Conclusions We found that paradoxical activities in semantic networks were shown in the victims of maltreatment. Further study might be needed to clarify these aberrant functions in semantic networks related to maltreatment experiences.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.889-910
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• 2011

Heracles has been adored as one of the bravest mythical heroes all times and all places because it was thought that he protected his people and lands from invasion, plunder, or enslavement. However, I argue Heracles should be criticized as a war machine of violence and murder. War is homicide itself, which means humans kill humans, unlike other violent and sensual animals such as dogs, apes or pigs. It is ironically ambivalent to celebrate an excellent hero in homicide in this age of nuclear weapons. This irony leads to S. Freud's 'Death instinct' or Malcolm Potts's 'war genes'. Unlike Freud, Malcolm Potts insists that humans' war genes can be changed into peace genes because they were just remains of Stone Age. According to Apollodoros' myth or Euripides' tragedies, he was mad enough to kill his own sons and wife after he had murdered the king Lycos in Thebes. Though Rene Girard says that his madness was derived from contagion of violence and blood, I think that his madness came from horrible experiences of cruel wars as well as Hera's maltreatment in his childhood. It will be demonstrated to be war neurosis, that is, PTSD(Posttraumatic Stress Disorder). In a different way from the modern media in which Heracles is being glorified as a purest macho and war machine, his old myths show the ambivalence of his violence and murder, and his daily misfortunes owing to his madness. In this sense, his myth is a kind of warning to the humans not to kill each other, or to stop wars.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2016

Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, impoverished fantasy life, and concrete and poorly introspective thinking. Alexithymic patients have been reported to show a stable deficit with regard to processing and regulating emotions. Eating disorders are characterized by a persistent disturbance of eating or eating-related behavior that significantly impairs physical health or psychosocial functioning. Like alexithymic patients, patients with eating disorders show the impaired capacity to process and regulate emotions. There is a robust body of literature showing patients with eating disorders are more alexithymic than healthy controls. Specifically, patients with eating disorders experience difficulties identifying and describing emotions. Childhood maltreatment can increase the risk for depression and alexithymia, which can in turn lead to disordered eating symptoms. Also, higher levels of alexithymia are correlated with a less favorable clinical outcome in patients with eating disorder. Therefore, treatments to help processing and regulating emotions of eating disorder patients with pronounced alexithymic traits may seem to lead to a higher possibility of recovery.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.40-60
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• 2004

Introduction：Research on attachment in view point of the developmental perspective which began in the 1940s progressed during several decades. Many investigators focused mother-child separation in early attachment studies, and moved to the relationship with childhood psychopathology. Recently attachment theory and research are moving forward along the intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns, and adolescents and adult mental disorders in the developmental perspectives. Methods：We surveyed the research papers through Medline search, attachment-related monographs, and review or original papers published in Korean journal. Results：Developmental attachment researches have demonstrated convincingly that insecure attachment in infancy is associated with attachment disorder; several childhood psychopatholgy, such as institutional care and adoption, aggression and behavioral problems, childhood anxiety disorders and depressive disorders, gender identity disorder and feeding disorder, and child abuse and maltreatment; peer relationship and social competency, and parental behaviors. Recently the methodological advances including the Adult Attachment Interview that systematically assesses the adults' recollections of the earlier parent-child relationship they experienced could move beyond attachment researcher's initial concern with infancy to consider attachment processes throughout the life span. We could find that the quality of attachment was associated with several mental disorders in adolescents and adults significantly. Conclusion：Attachment theory would have focused on more specific parent-child relationship than general parental behavior. Recent attachment theory underscores its evolutionary origins to promote development of infant and contribute to human survival in psychobiological bases. Advances in attachment research could unite interests in evolutional biology and developmental psychology in understanding early parent-child relationship, and apply to clinical issues concerning mental health throughout the life span.