Child Neglect and Delinquency in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

• In Event: Outcomes of Childhood Victimization and Neglect

Abstract

Child maltreatment remains a pervasive issue and has motivated extensive research efforts to examine its causes and consequences. While considerable attention has been devoted to understanding and mitigating various forms of maltreatment, including physical and sexual abuse, neglect often receives comparatively less scholarly focus despite being the most prevalent form of maltreatment. This study aims to contribute to the scarcity of this literature by investigating how the timing, accumulation, and duration of neglect in childhood influence delinquency in adolescence and emerging adulthood. This study will use data from the Future of Families & Child Wellbeing Study which employs a national sample of urban-born, at-risk youth followed from birth to age 22. Neglect is captured as both physical and emotional neglect, spanning year 1 to 9 of childhood. The analyses will control for a host of confounding factors used to assess delinquency in adolescence at Year 15 and offending in early adulthood at Year 22. Results and implications for the study of neglect and its influence on offending over the life course will be discussed.

Author

• Sibo Espitia Pierluissi, University of Colorado Boulder