Associations Between Childhood Abuse and Interpersonal Aggression and Suicide Attempt Among U.S. Adults in a National Study

• NCJ Number: 248091
• Journal: Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 38 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2014 Pages: 1389-1398
• Author(s): Thomas C. Hartford; Hsiao-ye Yi; Bridget F. Grant
• Date Published: August 2014
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): HHSN267200800023C
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; US Dept of Health and Human Service
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined associations among childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, and violence toward self (suicide attempts) and others (interpersonal aggression).

Abstract

This national survey found that frequent childhood physical, emotional, and sexual abuse were significantly associated with interpersonal aggression (IA) and suicide attempts (with and without IA). Although the strength of the associations was attenuated when adjusted for the presence of other childhood adversity and psychiatric disorder, the significance of the association was maintained. Both childhood physical and sexual abuse increased the risk for suicide attempts (SA) with IA significantly more than the risk for IA, but not for SA. These findings extend studies of IA and suicidal behavior in several ways. The findings suggest that psychiatric disorders mediate the relationship between frequent childhood physical violence and interpersonal violence for men and women. This extends the measure of violence to include SA and identified psychiatric disorders as potential mediators for associations between physical abuse and SA. This study also showed that although emotional abuse may appear to be less severe than physical abuse, both had similar associations with violence. In addition, this study further indicates that childhood sexual abuse is a greater risk factor for the combined SA with IA than for IA alone among both men and women. Another distinctive finding is that physical neglect had independent effects on IA, but was unrelated to SA. Further, eternalizing and internalizing disorders were related to both IA and SA. Study data were obtained from the National Epidemiology Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Waves 1 and 2 (n= 34,653). Multinomial logistic regression examined associations between type of childhood abuse and violence categories, adjusting for demographic variables, other childhood adversity, and DSM-IV psychiatric disorders. 4 tables and 53 references