Petrenko, C.L.M., Friend, A., Garrido, E.F., Taussig, H.N., & Culhane, S.E. (2012). Does subtype matter? Assessing the effects of maltreatment on functioning in preadolescent youth in out-of-home care. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36, 633-644.
More information is needed on the impact of various maltreatment subtypes on child functioning outcomes. There are two objectives for this study: to assess the effects of maltreatment subtypes on the cognitive, academic, and mental health functioning of preadolescent youth (ages nine to 11) living in out-of-home care; and, to examine different approaches to analyzing maltreatment subtypes. Four maltreatment subtypes were examined in this study, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and supervisory neglect.
Data utilized in this study were collected from baseline interviews in a randomized controlled trial of a preventive intervention for preadolescent youth not living with their caregivers of origin. The sample included 334 youth, most who were living in non-relative foster or kinship care. Cognitive, academic, and mental health functioning were assessed through youth- and caregiver-report measures, and youth maltreatment histories were assessed from administrative records using the Maltreatment Classification System.
The researchers found a robust association between physical abuse occurrence/severity and externalizing behaviour problems. In addition, there was a consistent relationship between externalizing behaviours and physical neglect as well as sexual abuse. Physical neglect and physical abuse were also associated with internalizing behaviour problems. Children who experienced low severity supervisory neglect tended to have higher verbal IQ scores than other maltreated children, and fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems, although their scores on these measures were still worse than normative samples.
Of those youth and caregivers eligible to be included, 92% agreed to participate in the baseline interviews. The sample was racially diverse. Several analytic approaches were used, enhancing the methodological rigor of this study. Regression models, hierarchical models, and latent class models were all used to examine the effects of maltreatment subtypes on functioning. This is the first study to use all of these approaches, and one of only a few studies to compare different approaches for analyzing maltreatment subtypes.
Only maltreatment that fell within the four subtypes (physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and supervisory neglect) was considered, as these are the most reliably reported subtypes; emotional abuse was not included in the study. In addition, due to concerns about the consistency and availability of information only maltreatment that occurred within two years of the court filing was assessed. It is therefore possible that the youth in the sample experienced many other subtypes of maltreatment over the life course. These experiences of earlier maltreatment were not accounted for in the current study.