Presentations authored or co-authored by members of the Freyd Dynamics Lab at the

2005 Annual Meeting of the
International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress

(Scroll down for handouts)

Posters ISTSS 2005

Allard, C. A., Freyd, J. J., & Goldberg, L. R. (2005). Are All Traumatic Events Equal? Further Research Using the BBTS. Poster to be presented at the
21st Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Toronto ON, Canada, November 2-5, 2005.

Gray, M., Cromer, L, Freyd, J.J. (2005) Betrayal trauma, acculturation & historical grief in Native Americans. Poster to be presented at the 21st
Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 2-5, 2005.

Klest, B. & Freyd, J.J. (2005) Dissociation and Memory for Neutral and traumatic Stories. Poster to be presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 2-5, 2005.

Martin, C.G., Cromer, L., Filgas-Heck, R. & Freyd, J.J. (2005) ADHD Symptomatology and Teachers' Perceptions of Maltreatment Effects. Poster
to be presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 2-5, 2005.

Authors and Co-authors:

Carolyn B. Allard, MS, is a doctoral student in clinical Psychology at the University of Oregon
Lisa DeMarni Cromer, MS, is a doctoral student in clinical Psychology at the University of Oregon
Regan Filgas-Heck, BA, graduated 2005 (Psychology ) at the University of Oregon
Jennifer J. Freyd,, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon
Christina Gamache, BA, graduated 2005 with honors in Psychology at the University of Oregon
Lewis R. Goldberg, PhD, is a senior scientist at Oregon Research Institute
Mary Gray, BA, graduated 2005 with honors in Psychology at the University of Oregon
Bridget Klest, MA, is a doctoral student in clinical Psychology at the University of Oregon

Abstracts & Handouts

	Allard, C. A., Freyd, J. J., & Goldberg, L. R. (2005). Are All Traumatic Events Equal? Further Research Using the BBTS. Full Poster: The Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey (BBTS; Goldberg & Freyd, 2004) assesses potentially traumatic childhood and adulthood experiences, which can be categorized as high in betrayal (HB) or low in betrayal (LB) depending on whether the perpetrator was close or not close to the respondent. Previous research has provided support for betrayal trauma theory (Freyd, 1996) in revealing that, while LB predicts psychological distress in adulthood, HB traumas explain significantly more of the predictive variance. In the present study, changes in the BBTS were introduced in an effort to increase its interpretability and validity, and further tests of betrayal trauma theory are being conducted. Our preliminary findings are consistent with previous research in that HB events significantly predict higher levels of dissociation, depression, and anxiety symptoms than do LB events. In our sample of young adults, childhood HB events alone, and not events experienced in adulthood, predict increased symptomatology. Furthermore, those childhood HB events that were directly experienced explain the most variance, whereas those that were witnessed or heard about do not contribute to the predictive associations. These findings have implications for conceptualizations of traumas, their sequelae, and their treatment.
	Gray, M., Cromer, L, Freyd, J.J. (2005). Betrayal trauma, acculturation & historical grief in Native Americans. Full Poster: Since European contact, Native Americans have experienced loss of life, land, and culture causing intergenerational trauma and unresolved grief (Yellow Horse Brave Heart & DeBruyn, 1998). Not surprisingly, identification with Native American heritage has been found to be affected by the individual's level of acculturation, or resistance to, dominant white culture, as well as ownership of traditional customs and beliefs (Garrett & Pichette, 2000). Acculturation studies in the extant literature report ways to measure acculturation and discuss the relationship between acculturation and psychological health. They do not however, examine the relationship of acculturation to intergenerational trauma. The current research documents prevalence rates of historical grief and betrayal trauma to better understand how these relate to acculturation. Native Americans in Oregon (N=45) participated in the study. Participants completed the Historical Losses Scale (Whitbeck et al., 2004), Native American Acculturation Scale (Garrett & Pichette, 2000) and the Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey (Goldberg & Freyd, under review). As predicted betrayal trauma is negatively correlated to acculturation r = .27, p <.05, meaning that Native Americans who are less acculturated to dominant white culture experience more trauma. Results are discussed in relation to historical losses and Native American diversity.
	Klest, B. & Freyd, J.J. (2005). Dissociation and Memory for Neutral and traumatic Stories. Full Poster: Previous research has consistently found a positive correlation between history of trauma and dissociation, and recent research (DePrince and Freyd, 1999; 2004) suggests that people who score high on a measure of dissociation may have enhanced abilities at dividing attention and suppressing traumatic information from consciousness. The current study set out to replicate these findings using more complex stimuli than have been used previously. Fifty-two subjects, half scoring high and half low on the Dissociative Experiences Scale, watched neutral videos while listening to neutral and trauma related stories. High dissociators remembered significantly more than low dissociators when listening to neutral stories, and performed no differently than low dissociators when listening to trauma related stories. This interaction was significant, t (50) = 1.72, p < .05 (one-tailed), and this finding is consistent with previous research.
	Martin, C.G., Cromer, L., Filgas-Heck, R. & Freyd, J.J. (2005). ADHD Symptomatology and Teachers' Perceptions of Maltreatment Effects. Full Poster: Stimulant medication sales increased 500 percent between 1991 and 1999 (U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, 2000). The American Academy of Pediatrics has called the increase in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis an epidemic (2000). Is ADHD over-diagnosed? Is it misdiagnosed? Weinstein et al. (2000) report that ADHD presentation in children resembles trauma symptoms. Further, maltreated children are often diagnosed with both ADHD and PTSD (McLeer et al., 1994; Famularo et al., 1996). Phenotypic similarity between ADHD and trauma symptomatology calls etiology into question. Because of teachers' important roles in children's lives, this study examines teachers' views about this dialectic. Teachers (N = 156) worldwide (85% U.S., 7.1% Canada, 3.2% Asia, 1.3% from Australia and 4.5% unidentified) completed an internet survey and described maltreatment effects on students. Responses were compared to ADHD diagnostic criteria. For neglect 74.1% of learning and 72.8% of behavioral effects identified were also ADHD symptoms. For abuse, 56.9% of learning and 55.4% of behavioral effects identified were also ADHD symptoms. Implications for neglected and abused children identified as having ADHD are discussed.