Comparing early adult outcomes of maltreated and non-maltreated children: A prospective longitudinal investigation
Introduction
Child maltreatment and its consequences have been the subject of formal scientific inquiry in the U.S. for nearly a half-century. In that time, the field has moved from primarily descriptive studies of behavioral maladjustment in physically abused children (e.g., Curtis, 1963, Kempe et al., 1962) to predictive studies linking multiple forms of maltreatment to an array of deleterious outcomes. Extensive empirical research has shown that maltreated children often perform poorly relative to their non-maltreated peers on various indicators of physical, psychological, social–emotional, educational, and behavioral functioning (English, 1998, Miller-Perrin and Perrin, 2007). Compounding its toll on victims, child maltreatment is associated with externalities (e.g., hospitalization, child welfare services) that pass along substantial costs to society (Wang & Holton, 2007).
Despite the field's advances toward elucidating the direct and indirect impacts associated with child abuse and neglect, methodological limitations continue to restrict the knowledge base. For example, much of the extant evidence has derived from studies using cross-sectional designs and retrospective data; analyses of prospective longitudinal data are less common (Leiter and Johnsen, 1994, Stone, 2007). Progress has also been slowed by the limited use of large samples, well-matched comparison groups, and statistical controls to foster equivalence between maltreated and non-maltreated participants. Finally, research has focused disproportionately on the proximal impacts of abuse and neglect in childhood and adolescence. Although findings generally indicate that the consequences of child maltreatment persist into adulthood, rigorous studies of this kind are in the minority.
There are conceptual grounds on which to conjecture that the effects of maltreatment may differ among outcomes and over time. Prevailing developmental perspectives, including resilience theory, acknowledge that responses to abuse and neglect vary and that some maltreated children may function well in some domains while having difficulty in other areas (Bolger and Patterson, 2003, Cicchetti and Toth, 1995). Further, some maltreated children may exhibit early disturbances but achieve greater levels of competence in adulthood, while others may experience harmful distal impacts without similar proximal consequences. Due partly to these individual differences, victims of abuse and neglect may meet criteria for resilience at certain developmental stages and not at others.
That any maltreated children are able to function well is seemingly remarkable considering that abuse and neglect often undermine key developmental functions and structures, including neurobiological, cognitive, attention, emotion regulation, attachment, and self systems (Cicchetti & Valentino, 2006). Yet, resilience theory posits that living organisms possess self-righting mechanisms that promote successful adaptation, meaning the capacity to succeed in the face of adversity may emerge from normal adaptive systems (Masten, 2007). Correspondingly, maltreated children who are otherwise exposed to environmental conditions that meet at least average expectations may be protected or buffered from harm. Therefore, maltreatment victims may achieve measurable standards of competence, not because they are invulnerable exemplars as once thought (Anthony, 1974), but because adaptive internal and external systems offered compensatory advantages.
Among the principal challenges to studying resilience, investigators must define the conditions that constitute adversity along with the criteria that connote adaptive functioning (Luthar, 2006, Masten, 2007). While it is clear that abuse and neglect represent profound threats to healthy development, it is uncertain how successful adaptation to these adverse experiences should be operationalized (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000). Scholars are gradually aligning with the perspective, however, that inferences of resilience are strengthened to the degree that individuals exhibit positive adaptation broadly (Cicchetti and Rogosch, 1997, Jaffee and Gallop, 2007, McGloin and Widom, 2001). Similar to the way etiological research has shifted from single-factor prediction models to multifactorial analyses, resilience-oriented investigations are increasingly being designed to examine how outcomes vary over time and across domains.
In this investigation, we use data from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS) to examine the long-term impacts of child maltreatment. Our study contributes to the literature in three important ways. First, we extend research on the consequences of maltreatment by testing associations with multiple outcomes at different points in emerging adulthood (age 18–24). Second, we analyze relations between maltreatment and select cut-points on a summative outcome index that reflect different thresholds of resilience. In so doing, we are able to assess the aggregate effects of maltreatment across domains. Third, we address many of the methodological limitations found in previous research. We use prospective longitudinal data to investigate a large sample of disadvantaged children drawn from the general population. We also control for many child and family characteristics that correlate with maltreatment and the study outcomes, thereby reducing the likelihood that the estimated effects are spurious. Moreover, we analyze alternative model specifications to test the robustness of our estimates.
Below, we summarize the literature related to the long-term impacts of child maltreatment in the following areas: (a) educational and economic attainments, (b) criminal offending, (c) behavioral and mental health, and (d) resilience, or positive adaptation across domains.
Section snippets
Educational and economic attainments
A sizeable body of research has shown that maltreated children are at risk of poor scholastic outcomes, such as lower achievement test scores and school grades as well as higher rates of absenteeism, grade repetition, and school dropout (See Stone, 2007 for review). Child maltreatment may also hinder long-term educational success, though only a handful of studies have analyzed secondary and post-secondary attainments. McGloin and Widom (2001) found that maltreated males and females were
Sample and data
This investigation uses data from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), a panel study of 1539 minority children (93% African American; 7% Hispanic) from economically disadvantaged families. The original sample included 989 children who attended preschool in a Chicago Child–Parent Center (CPC) in 1983 or 1984. All other CLS participants (n = 550) attended full-day kindergarten programs in Chicago public schools that were randomly selected from community areas comparable to areas served by the CPCs.
Descriptive Analyses
Base rates for the predictor and outcome variables are shown in Appendix A. The findings portray the disadvantaged nature of the sample. For instance, the cumulative incidence of indicated maltreatment in the CLS was 13.5% (n = 191) by age 18. Two-thirds of the sample (67.0%) completed high school, though only slightly more than half (51.2%) earned a high school diploma. A small minority of participants (13.7%) earned at least one credit at a four-year college or university, and less than
Discussion
This investigation reaffirms that child maltreatment has the potential to generate extensive and enduring consequences. Results indicated that maltreatment was associated with adverse impacts on salient measures of early adult development. While many maltreatment victims fared well on select outcomes, most did not achieve criteria for resilience when functioning was assessed across domains.
Three main methodological features of the study enhance confidence in our findings. First, we used
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (No. 2003-0035) and by the Institute on Race and Ethnicity at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
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