NCJ Number
232724
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 34 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2010 Pages: 742-751
Date Published
October 2010
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Since research that has examined cumulative risk factors associated with child maltreatment show that they increase the likelihood of mental health problems, the current study's goal was to clarify the link between cumulative risk factors and mental health symptomatology.
Abstract
The analyses confirmed the high-risk nature of the study sample - 252 maltreated youths (ages 9-11) placed in out-of-home care - and identified seven prominent risk variables. The cumulative risk index, which consisted of these seven indicators was a strong predictor of mental health symptoms, differentiating between children who scored in the clinical range regarding mental health symptoms and those who did not. The data also supported a linear model, in which each incremental increase in cumulative risk was accompanied by an increase in mental health problems. The seven risk variables that showed significant links to the mental health symptoms were physical abuse, sexual abuse, coming from a single-parent household, number of caregiver transitions, number of school transitions, exposure to community violence, and low intellectual functioning. Of these variables, the latter four represent characteristics of the child or of the child's experience that are external to his/her immediate family. Although the study was not able to measure socioeconomic status in the current study, this may be an important intervening variable to consider in future research. Mental health symptomatology was determined from instruments that measured anxiety, trauma symptoms, and internalizing and externalizing problems. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 40 references