Childhood Maltreatment and Elder Abuse in Late Midlife: A Prospective Investigation

• In Event: Consequences of Childhood Maltreatment and Witnessing Arrests on Youth and Adults

Abstract

Existing research has reported that childhood maltreatment increases risk for subsequent abuse and revictimization in middle adulthood, and specifically for sexual assault/abuse and intimate partner physical violence victimization. Using data from a longitudinal study of the long-term consequences of childhood maltreatment, this paper extends and expands upon existing literature to describe the extent to which childhood maltreatment predicts elder abuse. Children with court-substantiated cases of maltreatment (ages 0 -11 years) and demographically matched controls were followed into late midlife (Mage = 59) and interviewed (N = 447). Childhood maltreatment (physical and sexual abuse and neglect) was operationalized based on court substantiated cases from 1967-1971 in a midwestern county area in the United States. Elder abuse was assessed with the National Elder Mistreatment Study instrument (Acierno et al.,2010) that inquired about 1-year prevalence of physical, sexual, and emotional mistreatment, financial mistreatment by family, and potential neglect. Analyses will examine whether there are differences for the maltreated group compared to the controls, whether there are differences by type of childhood abuse or neglect, and differences by sex and race of the participants. These findings will have implications for prevention and intervention efforts targeting individuals with histories of maltreatment as children.

Author

• Cathy Spatz Widom, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY