Understanding the Link Between Childhood Maltreatment and Violent Delinquency: What Do Schools Have to Add?

Abstract

Child maltreatment constitutes significant risk for adolescent delinquency. Although an ecological model has been proposed to explain this relationship, most studies focus on individual risk factors. Prospective data from 1,788 students attending 23 schools were used to examine the additive influence of childhood maltreatment, individual-level risk factors, and school-level variables assessed at the beginning of Grade 9 on delinquency 4 to 6 months later. Individual-level results indicated that being male, experiencing childhood maltreatment, and poor parental nurturing were predictors of violent delinquency. School climate also played a significant role: Given the same individual risk profile, a student attending a school that was perceived by students as safe was less likely to engage in violent delinquency than was a student attending a school perceived to be unsafe. Moreover, the impact of childhood maltreatment on risk for engaging in violent delinquency was somewhat mitigated by schools' participation in a comprehensive violence prevention program.

Impact of Sexual Harassment Victimization by Peers on Subsequent Adolescent Victimization and Adjustment: A Longitudinal Study

“…Eight items were chosen to reflect engagement in violent delinquency (e.g., ''fought with someone to the point where they needed care for their injuries''). Presence of violent delinquency perpetration (i.e., two or more forms of violent delinquency) was based on prior established cutoffs [16]. Peer relational victimization was assessed with five items from the Self-Report of Aggression and Social Behaviors survey [17].…”

The Relationship between Dimensions of Physical Abuse and Aggressive Behavior in a Child Protective Services Involved Sample of Adolescents

“…The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire is a self-report assessment of maltreatment based largely on questions about the frequency of maltreatment; scores for this measure were found to be correlated with aggression (Crooks, Scott, Wolfe, Chiodo, & Killip, 2007) and dating violence (Wekerle et al, 2001;Wolfe, Wekerle, Scott, Straatman, & Grasley, 2004).…”

A Framework for School-Based Psychological Evaluations: Utilizing a ‘Trauma Lens’

“…Nevertheless, a number of authors have suggested that schools can play a significant role in the adjustment of traumatized children (e.g., Crooks, Scott, Wolfe, Chiodo, & Killip, 2007;Heller, Larrieu, D'Imperio, & Boris, 1999) and several efforts relevant to children at school have been disseminated recently. For instance, Horton and Cruise (2001) discussed symptoms that are often observed in maltreated children at school and discussed issues such as reporting suspected child maltreatment, school-based mental health services, and consulting with teachers and parents.…”