Publication year: 2011
Source: Children and Youth Services Review, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 27 August 2011
Michael J., MacKenzie , Jonathan B., Kotch , Lee-Ching, Lee , Astraea, Augsberger , Nathan, Hutto
The current analysis was designed to critically examine the tendency to focus on child maltreatment as a unique risk factor and test the resulting assumption of a direct causal relationship between early maltreatment and later behavioral problems. The variation seen in behavioral outcomes among children reported for maltreatment early in life led us to hypothesize that the cumulative level of risk facing children and their families can, at least in part, account for that variation in outcome. Participants were 242 mothers of predominantly at-risk newborn infants who were interviewed shortly after giving birth. The State Central Registry of Maltreatment was…
Highlights: ► Early maltreatment report is important to early child functioning, but across childhood into adolescence the cumulative level of risk facing a family more strongly predicted behavioral problems. ► High-risk children who were not reported for maltreatment by age 4 demonstrate greater behavioral problem trajectories than did low-risk children with an early maltreatment report. ► Maltreatment itself may be best conceptualized as an important, but not singularly so, risk factor for later behavioral problems. ► When it comes to early maltreatment our child protective policy and practice need to broaden their lenses beyond maltreatment reports to include greater emphasis on overall family functioning, stress and well-being.