NCJ Number
145416
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 17 Issue: 5 Dated: (September-October 1993) Pages: 581-589
Date Published
1993
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The effects of child abuse and neglect on school performance were studied using data from 139 school-age and adolescent children in nine Georgia counties.
Abstract
The children included 22 who had been physically abused, 47 who had been neglected, and 70 who served as a comparison group. Data were gathered from five sources: teachers; parents; children; school records; and, for children in the physically abused and neglected groups, their child protective service caseworkers. The analysis focused on the children's school performance; social and emotional development in school, at home, in the community, and with peers; and adaptive behavior in areas such as motor skills, personal care skills, and community orientation. With the effects of socioeconomic status factored out, the results revealed that the abused children displayed pervasive and severe academic, social, and emotional problems. Neglected children differed little from children who were neither abused nor neglected on measures of social and emotional development, but they displayed severe academic delays. However, all three groups of children had similar levels on adaptive functioning with respect to motor skills, personal care, and community orientation. Results suggest that simply identifying and reporting cases of abuse and neglect does not prevent or eliminate the victims' academic and behavioral problems. Therefore, schools must take steps to prevent the problem and to remediate the academic and behavioral problems that maltreated students experience in the classroom. Tables and 23 references (Author abstract modified)