Childhood maltreatment and antisocial behavior: Comparison of self-reported and substantiated maltreatment.

Abstract

Although accurate assessment of maltreatment is critical to understanding and interrupting its impact on the life course, comparison of different measurement approaches is rare. The goal of this study is to compare maltreatment reports from official Child Protective Services (CPS) records with retrospectively self-reported measures. Research questions address the prevalence and concordance of each type of measure, their relationship to social disadvantage, and their prediction to four antisocial outcomes in adolescence and early adulthood including arrest, self-reported violence, general offending, and illegal drug use. Data to address this comparison come from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), a longitudinal panel study of 1,000 adolescents. Findings indicate that self-reported retrospective maltreatment is somewhat more prevalent (29%) than official substantiated maltreatment (21%). Among those with official reports, in young adulthood about half self-reported maltreatment, whereas 37% of those self-reporting have an official report. In general, both sources suggest that maltreatment is associated with a higher prevalence of antisocial behavior. It is not clear that combining sources of information improves prediction.

The cycle of victimization: The relationship between childhood maltreatment and adolescent peer victimization

“…However, many of these studies are based on adult respondents and often rely on retrospective reports of maltreatment which may lack reliability and/or validity (Cicchetti & Toth, 2005;Smith et al, 2008;Widom, 1989b). Relatively little research and very few longitudinal studies which can help ensure temporal ordering between maltreatment and subsequent victimization have examined the relationship between abuse and peer victimization experienced during adolescence.…”

“…However, the majority of studies have focused on revictimization during adulthood (e.g., Coid et al, 2001;Gidycz et al, 1993;McIntyre & Widom, 2011) rather than adolescence. In addition, many of these studies, as well as some research examining adolescent victimization, have relied on retrospective reports of child maltreatment, which may lack reliability and/or validity due to respondents' memory loss, recall bias, and/or embarrassment (Cicchetti & Toth, 2005;Smith, Ireland, Thornberry, & Elwyn, 2008;Widom, 1989b).…”

Talking (or Not Talking) about the Past: The Influence of Parent–Child Conversation about Negative Experiences on Children's Memories

“…For example, although traumatised youth in war settings can show apparently inconsistent memory in nominating different experiences as their most distressing on different interview occasions, but this appears to reflect a reordering of their hierarchy of lifetime distressing experiences in light of their current concerns rather than forgetting (Panter-Brick, Grimon, Kalin, & Eggerman, 2014). Similarly, about half of research participants with documented histories of childhood maltreatment do not self-report their experience (physical and sexual abuse) when interviewed as adults (Smith, Ireland, Thornberry, & Elwyn, 2008); approximately 20% do not report documented sexual abuse even when there has been a criminal prosecution of the offender (Goodman et al, 2003), and some adult women who experienced child sexual abuse show inconsistencies in their recall of their experiences within the same interview (Fivush & Edwards, 2004). These patterns are consistent with the underreporting and omission of the particularly sensitive aspects of their experience demonstrated by sexually abused children when interviewed by authorities (Leander, Granhag, & Christianson, 2005).…”

Effects of Child Maltreatment and Inherited Liability on Antisocial Development: An Official Records Study

“…[11] [12] [13] Historically, genetically-informative research on maltreatment and antisocial development has generally relied upon retrospective parent-or self-reports of maltreatment. Such reports suffer from a high prevalence of false negatives [14] as well as marginal reliability when multiple self-reports are collected over time, [15] or when compared with reports of other family members. [16] In contrast, due to their scope and demonstrated predictive capacity, official records represent an unparalleled resource for studying the broad-based impact of child maltreatment on public health.…”