Associations between Chronicity of Childhood Maltreatment and Late Adolescent Mental Health and Risk Behaviors

• In Event: The Effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Adolescent and Young Adult Psychopathology

Abstract

Background: There is consistent evidence demonstrating adverse outcomes for maltreated youth. However, a more nuanced understanding is needed that outlines the ways in which the various attributes of child maltreatment experiences such as type (i.e., sexual abuse [SA], physical abuse [PA], emotional abuse [EA], and physical neglect [PN]) and timing (e.g., chronicity, age of onset, duration) may differentially impact trajectories of risk. The current study examined the effect of chronicity of SA, PA, EA, and PN on late adolescent mental health and risk behaviors.
Methods: Participants (n=351, Mage = 18.25 years, 49.9% female) self-reported maltreatment that occurred prior to age 18 for each maltreatment type. Chronicity (i.e., number of developmental periods of maltreatment; 0-5, 6-10, 11-17 years) was assigned for each type; 0=no maltreatment, 1=situational (1 period), 2=chronic (2+ periods). Adolescent outcomes included self-report depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms, delinquency (person and property offenses), and substance abuse/dependence (SAD). MANCOVA was used to test the effects of maltreatment chronicity (separately for any maltreatment, SA, PA, EA, PN) on adolescent mental health and risk behaviors, controlling for child gender and age. Analyses were conducted with the full sample and by gender.
Results: Mental health results indicated that chronic SA, PA, and EA was associated with higher depressive and PTSD symptoms compared to no maltreatment. Depressive symptoms were also higher among those with chronic SA in comparison to situational SA. Those with situational EA reported higher anxiety symptoms than no maltreatment. These main effects were generally driven by higher reported symptoms among females for SA (depression and PTSD) and males for EA (PTSD). Risk behavior results indicated that both chronic and situational PA and EA were associated with higher SAD symptoms than no maltreatment. Delinquency was higher among those with chronic PA than the other groups. These effects for PA were driven by males. There were no significant effects for PN chronicity for the full sample or by gender for any of the outcomes.
Conclusion: The results broadly indicate that chronic childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse that spans more than one developmental period confers greater risk for mental health symptoms, delinquency, and SAD in adolescence than shorter-term maltreatment.

Authors

• Hannah Leigh Fritz, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author

• Juye Ji, California State University, Fullerton

• Sonya Negriff, Kaiser Permanente Southern California