The Association between Early Reports to Child Protective Services and Developmental Trajectories through Middle Childhood

Citation

Chandler, Caroline E.; Shanahan, Meghan; & Halpern, Carolyn Tucker (2021). The Association between Early Reports to Child Protective Services and Developmental Trajectories through Middle Childhood. Child Abuse & Neglect, 122, 105303. PMCID: PMC8612979

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal studies on resilience among children who have experienced maltreatment indicate that resilience is multi-dimensional. However, most research consolidates diverse developmental domains comprising resilience into a single score, which does not allow for detection of potentially heterogeneous associations between risk factors and outcomes of resilience processes.
OBJECTIVE: This study seeks to improve our understanding of the association between early child maltreatment and development through middle childhood (6-12 years) using individual domains considered to be outcomes of resilience processes.
PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants are 499 children from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect.
METHODS: We used latent growth curve models to explore patterns of socialization and daily living skills, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors - outcomes of resilience processes - across three time points in middle childhood, and their association with early maltreatment, defined as referral to Child Protective Services (CPS) before age 6.
RESULTS: In fully adjusted models, children experiencing early maltreatment had poorer baseline scores in activities of daily living (-4.22, 95% CI [-7.38, -1.46]) and externalizing behavior (2.95, 95% CI [1.05, 4.86]), but maltreatment was not associated with change over time in these domains. However, maltreatment was associated with increases in internalizing behavior over time (0.42, 95% CI [0.06, 0.77]).
CONCLUSION: Heterogeneity in patterns of association between maltreatment and outcomes of resilience processes support the utility of examining developmental domains individually, versus as a composite, to identify specific targets for intervention.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105303

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2021

Journal Title

Child Abuse & Neglect

Author(s)

Chandler, Caroline E.
Shanahan, Meghan
Halpern, Carolyn Tucker

Article Type

Regular

PMCID

PMC8612979

Data Set/Study

Longitudinal Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN)

Continent/Country

United States of America

State

Nonspecific

ORCiD

Halpern - 0000-0003-4278-5646