Child Maltreatment最新文献

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a growing global issue with significant psychological impacts, yet few validated tools assess childhood experiences. This study provides information on a newly developed IBSA Scale designed to capture the accumulating burden of multiple distinct dimensions of IBSA. The study included 6226 U.S. participants aged 18-28, with an oversampling of IBSA experiences (prior to age of 18) and of sexual and gender minority individuals. Psychometric evaluation involved Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were conducted to assess the scale's structure. Convergent validity was tested using peer norms and online risky behaviors, and discriminant validity with social connectedness. EGA confirmed a cohesive structure and 100% stability of all items, confirmed by CFA (χ²(9) = 102.17, p < .01, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .041). Convergent validity was demonstrated by moderate correlations with peer norms (rmean = .41) and online risky behaviors (rmean = .24). Discriminant validity was confirmed with low correlations with social connectedness (rmean = -.06). Sociodemographic analysis revealed higher IBSA scores among females, sexual and gender minority individuals, and participants with lower-income (p < .001). The IBSA scale is a promising tool for measuring the cumulative burden of different IBSA experiences.

While prior research indicates that parents who were maltreated as children are more likely to engage in negative parenting behaviors, less is known about how mothers' social relationships may influence these practices. Yet parenting behaviors are influenced not only by the individual characteristics of the parent and child, but also by the social context that exists around the parent-child dyad. The aim of the current cross-sectional study was to test a model examining the effect of mothers' exposure to child maltreatment on harsh parenting practices, as observed in the lab, and the mediating role of strain in mothers' relationships. Seventy-eight mother-child dyads, with children ranging from 18- to 36-months old, were recruited from the community; mothers completed self-report measures of childhood trauma and relational strains, and were observed during a stressful parent-child interaction in the lab. Results indicated that higher child maltreatment was associated with harsher parenting, indirectly via greater chronic relational strains. These findings contribute important knowledge on how mothers' trauma history may influence their current social context to affect parenting behavior. Therapeutic approaches focused on alleviating maternal relational strains, including interventions that target other important people in a mother's circle, may yield more parenting benefits than parent training without a systemic approach.

Validated instruments that measure intimate partner violence (IPV) following separation from an abusive co-parent ("post-separation abuse" (PSA)), are needed to understand and mitigate risks to child health. Items for the Healthcare, Economic, and Legal Post-Separation Abuse and Coercive Tactics (HELP-T) Scale were generated based on qualitative interviews with maternal survivors (N = 33) and expert review. Reliability, construct validity, and concurrent validity were tested in a sample (N = 497) of maternal survivors experiencing PSA in the US. Exploratory factor analysis assessed construct validity, and Cronbach's alpha assessed subscale reliability. Iterative principal factor analysis revealed 3 subscales for 22 items that were labeled (1) Healthcare PSA, (2) Legal PSA, and (3) Economic PSA, and demonstrated strong reliability with Cronbach's alphas from 0.82 to 0.89. The three subscales exhibit strong preliminary psychometric properties and provide insights to help health and legal professionals measure and establish PSA tactics.

The study compared life course models (LCM; accumulation, recency, and sensitive period) of child maltreatment and general psychopathology in a large, national longitudinal data set of 1354 youth ages birth-16 years (657 boys, 53.2% Black, 59.7% <$40K caregiver income). Previous research has supported the accumulation and recency models, albeit with shorter or fewer time periods of outcome measurement. We extend this work by modeling the impact of combined abuse and neglect allegations on a general psychopathology factor (dysregulation profile). Cross-sectional structural equation models were constructed using LCMs and tested across two-year periods from 4-16 years old and compared using Akaike Information Criterion weights. The recency variable generally explained the greatest proportion of variance in psychopathology. Notably, maltreatment more proximal to the time of outcome measurement had the strongest effect, suggesting that more recent maltreatment may have stronger effects on general psychopathology. These results lend support to a recency effect of maltreatment on psychopathology outcomes, although substantive overlaps with the accumulation model are noted.

Although adolescents are at elevated risk of sexual victimisation, very limited research has focused on how best to interview suspected adolescent victims. The current study was conducted to lay the groundwork for the development of best-practice interviewing approaches with adolescents when sexual victimisation is suspected. Expert interviewers with experience and knowledge in interviewing suspected adolescent victims were asked about common challenges they encounter with adolescent interviewees and how they tailor their interviews for this population. The findings indicated that adolescents are often reluctant to disclose, and the strategies the interviewers use to meet the unique needs of adolescents hinge on respecting each adolescent as a relatively autonomous and independent person. Identifying which strategies expert interviewers use is a fruitful starting point for future experimental research that can test and ultimately develop evidence-based practices for this population, which is necessary to help interviewers interact with suspected adolescent victims in ways that align with their psychosocial and cognitive maturity.

One overlooked result in a 1989 Science paper on the "cycle of violence" was a race-specific increase in risk for arrest for violence among Black maltreated children, but not White maltreated children. We examine whether race differences in the cycle of violence are explained by risk factors traditionally associated with violence. Using a prospective design, maltreated and non-maltreated children were matched on age, sex, race, and approximate family social class and interviewed at mean age 28.7 years (N = 1196). Arrest histories were obtained through age 50.5. Regression analyses included maltreatment, race, self-reported violent behavior, and risk factors (e.g., family, school, neighborhood variables). For arrests for violent crime, race was a significant predictor, whereas childhood maltreatment was not significant. For violent arrests, there was a significant race × maltreatment interaction when the total number of risk factors were included controlling for self-reported violent behaviors. For self-reported violent behaviors, childhood maltreatment remained significant for some risk factors. However, race did not predict self-reported violent behaviors. Offending behavior and traditional risk factors did not explain the disproportionate arrests among Black maltreated children. This disparity in the cycle of violence may reflect complex processes influenced by racial bias or structural racism.

This proof-of- concept study focused on interviewers' behaviors and perceptions when interacting with a dynamic AI child avatar alleging abuse. Professionals (N = 68) took part in a virtual reality (VR) study in which they questioned an avatar presented as a child victim of sexual or physical abuse. Of interest was how interviewers questioned the avatar, how productive the child avatar was in response, and how interviewers perceived the VR interaction. Findings suggested alignment between interviewers' virtual questioning approaches and interviewers' typical questioning behavior in real-world investigative interviews, with a diverse range of questions used to elicit disclosures from the child avatar. The avatar responded to most question types as children typically do, though more nuanced programming of the avatar's productivity in response to complex question types is needed. Participants rated the avatar positively and felt comfortable with the VR experience. Results underscored the potential of AI-based interview training as a scalable, standardized alternative to traditional methods.

Limited research is available examining distal child welfare outcomes after participation in evidence-based parenting interventions. To address this gap, this study employed a multi-tiered analytic approach to examine child welfare outcomes after participation in Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC). Using propensity score analytic techniques to establish a matched comparison group, logistic regressions examined subsequent maltreatment reports and substantiation, and survival analyses observed time to and likelihood of reunification for children who received one of three ABC curriculums compared to comparison group children (child welfare services as usual). In total, 205 children were included in the impact analysis (n = 66 treatment; n = 139 comparison); the majority of the children were White (53.7%), non-Hispanic (84.4%), males (59.5%) with an average age of 6 months (M [SD] = .50 [1.0]). Over half (56.1%) of the study sample was in out-of-home placement; 23.5% of the removed children experienced reunification. No statistically significant group differences were observed on the likelihood of subsequent or substantiated maltreatment reports. All three ABC curriculums were associated with a statistically significant increased likelihood of reunification, when compared to their matched counterpart. Additional research is warranted, though results indicate ABC may be a promising intervention to help enhance the likelihood of reunification.

We asked 111 6- to 11-year-old maltreated children to tell "everything that happened" on their last birthday, the last time they did something they liked to do outside, and yesterday. All children produced details in response to the like to do and yesterday narratives, compared to 98% of children in response to the birthday narrative. Questions about yesterday were more likely to elicit productive responses (93%) than questions about the child's birthday (90%) or things they liked to do (88%). Older children produced the most details in response to questions about yesterday, and older children's birthday narratives were more productive than those about favorite activities. Narratives about children's birthday and yesterday produced comparable percentages of negative details (15%), whereas 32% of children mentioned something negative when discussing a favorite activity. The results suggest that although children find yesterday easier to recall than their last birthday, the birthday narrative is a productive tool for encouraging children to practice recalling more remote events, preparing them for abuse disclosures.

The present study is one of the largest quasi-experimental studies to date on the effects of home visiting on documented child maltreatment during a child's first two years of life. In this matched comparison group study, we compare 8796 families that participated in a home visiting program (HV families) to 8796 similar non-participating families (non-HV families) selected from birth records using Coarsened Exact Matching. Using sequential logistic regression, we identify that HV families have significantly higher odds of experiencing a child maltreatment investigation by their child's second birthday compared to non-HV families; however, among those that were investigated, HV families have significantly lower odds of having their first investigation substantiated for maltreatment. Overall, HV families do not differ significantly from non-HV families in the odds of experiencing a substantiated investigation over 2 years. We share implications for considering surveillance bias, and we highlight the importance of including both substantiated and unsubstantiated investigations when studying the effects of home visiting on documented child maltreatment.