Relationships between Different Types of Maltreatment during Childhood and Adjustment in Adulthood

Abstract

There are very few research studies that have evaluated the relationships between multiple forms of childhood maltreatment and psychological adjustment in adulthood. This study evaluates the interrelationships between five different types of child maltreatment (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect, witnessing family violence) in a community sample of women and men (N = 175). The relationships between the reported experience of these forms of maltreatment in childhood, family characteristics during childhood, and current psychological adjustment (trauma symptomatology and self-depreciation) were assessed. As hypothesized, family characteristics predicted maltreatment scores and adjustment, and maltreatment scores predicted adjustment after controlling for family environment. There were high correlations between scores on the five maltreatment scales. Results highlight the need to assess all forms of maltreatment when looking at relationships of maltreatment to adjustment and the importance of childhood familial environment for the long-term adjustment of adults.

Understanding and Treating Feelings of Shame in Children Who Have Experienced Maltreatment

“…Are you too stupid to know if you just do what I tell you, I wouldn't have to hurt you?") (Higgins & McCabe, 2000). This ongoing pattern of negative parent-child interactions may further perpetuate children's feelings of inadequacy and characterological self-blame, which has been associated with the development of shame and associated emotional symptoms (Ferguson, Stegge, Miller, & Olsen, 1999).…”

Multiple types of child maltreatment and adolescent mental health in Viet Nam

“…We developed four subscales by adapting items from questionnaires used internationally, such as the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale, 24 the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaires, 25 the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire 26 and several other scales used in Australia, 5,27 China 19,20 and South Africa. 28 Item wording reflecting value judgements (e.g.…”

“…To estimate the prevalence of each type of child maltreatment, respondents who scored at or above the mean on each subscale were classified as having experienced that type of maltreatment. 5,29,30 The mean is used as a cut-off partly to compensate for the number of false positives and false negatives for each form of maltreatment. 5,29 The number of types of child maltreatment suffered was summed for each respondent, with scores on the MTM scale ranging from 0 to 4.…”

“…A significant proportion of young people questioned in community-based surveys in Australia, Canada, Israel and the United States of America (USA), report having suffered multiple types of maltreatment (MTM) as children. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] When adolescents and adults who have experienced MTM are compared with those who have suffered only a single type of maltreatment, MTM victims usually have substantially more mental health and behavioural problems. [8][9][10][11] The evidence supports an additive model of maltreatment effects.…”

The Cultural Reinforcers of Child Abuse

“…However, others argue that such a distinction may be slightly misleading because the reality tells us that often there are no strong lines of demarcation between the different abuse subtypes, and that abuse subtypes seldom occur in isolation. The existing evidence shows that the majority of individuals with history of maltreatment report exposure to two or more subtypes (Arata, Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Bowers, and O'Farrill-Swails, 2005;Higgins and McCabe, 2000;Ney, Fung, and Wickett, 1994). In addition, some acts of violence against children involve multiple maltreatment subtypes.…”