In a new study published in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics<\/em>, Melissa Jonson-Reid, PhD, child welfare expert and a professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, looked at how chronic maltreatment impacted the future health and behavior of children and adults<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The study tracked children by number of child maltreatment reports (zero to four or more) and followed the children into early adulthood, by which time some of the children had become parents.<\/p>\n The study sought to determine how well the number of child maltreatment reports predicted poor outcomes in adolescence, such as delinquency, substance abuse in the teen years or getting a sexually transmitted disease.<\/p>\n \u201cFor every measure studied, a more chronic history of child maltreatment reports was powerfully predictive of worse outcomes<\/strong>,\u201d Jonson-Reid says.<\/p>\n \u201cFor most outcomes, having a single maltreatment report put children at a 20 percent to 50 percent higher risk than non-maltreated comparison children.<\/p>\n In addition, a series of adult outcomes were tracked to see if the chronicity of maltreatment still mattered after controlling for the poor outcomes in adolescence. Adult outcomes included adult substance abuse or growing up and having children whom they then maltreated.<\/p>\n \u201cIn models of adult outcomes, children with four or more reports were about least twice as likely to later abuse their own children and have contact with the mental health system, even when controlling for the negative outcomes during adolescence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jonson-Reid says that there appears to be good reason to put resources into preventing ongoing maltreatment.<\/p>\n \u201cSuccessfully interrupting chronic child maltreatment may well reduce risk of a wide range of other costly child and adolescent health and behavioral problems<\/strong>,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Jonson-Reid cites a recently published Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study estimating lifetime costs for a single year\u2019s worth of children reported for maltreatment at $242 billion. (http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0145213411003140)<\/p>\n \u201cWhat our study illustrates is that these costs are even more likely to accrue for children who continue to be re-reported,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The study also found that maltreatment predicts a range of negative adolescent outcomes, and those adolescent outcomes then predict poor adult outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the poor outcomes in adolescence can be dealt with effectively, then later adult outcomes may also be forestalled,\u201d Jonson-Reid says.<\/p>\n \u201cOur findings could therefore be interpreted as supporting many current evidence-based interventions that seek to improve behavioral and social functioning among children and adolescents who have experienced trauma like abuse or neglect.\u201d<\/p>\n Jonson-Reid co-authored the study, \u201cChild and Adult Outcomes of Chronic Child Maltreatment,\u201d with fellow Brown School faculty members Patricia L. Kohl, PhD, associate professor, and F. Brett Drake, PhD, professor.<\/p>\n To view the full study visit: http:\/\/pediatrics.aappublications.org\/content\/early\/2012\/04\/17\/peds.2011-2529.abstract.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Washington University in St. Louis press release: Child abuse or neglect are strong predictors of major health and emotional problems, but little is known about how the chronicity… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10,9],"tags":[121,45,73,49,12,305],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2968,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions\/2968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Facepalm2.jpg\" "\\"traumatised\\"")
Child abuse or neglect are strong predictors of major health and emotional problems<\/strong>, but little is known about how the chronicity of the maltreatment may increase future harm apart from other risk factors in a child\u2019s life<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n