NCJ Number
127718
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1990) Pages: 249-268
Date Published
1990
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examines parent-reported developmental and medical characteristics from a pediatric health history and selected findings from a child physical examination in a controlled comparison of psychiatric outpatients and inpatients who were classified on the basis of their history of physical and sexual abuse. In addition to documenting the children's health adjustment across different development periods such as infancy or childhood, this study examines the developmental correlates of contrasting patterns of child abuse.
Abstract
The patients were 105 outpatients and 105 inpatients, ages 6-13 years, and their parents/guardians over a 15-month period. Primary reasons for referral to either clinic were aggression and antisocial behavior, hyperactivity, depression, suicidality, and general unmanageability due to parental or family dysfunction; more severe difficulties were represented in the inpatient clinic. Physically abused children had more early developmental delays, neurologic soft signs, serious physical injuries, skin markings and scars, and stimulant drug use than their non-physically abused peers. Sexually abused children were reported to exhibit higher levels of sexual activity and stimulant drug use and had more physical signs of genital manipulation than non-sexually abused children. Further areas of research into the effects of and the nature and context of the multiple injuries sustained during early and middle childhood on physically abused children is suggested. 31 references and 4 tables (Publisher abstract modified)