This correlational cross-sectional study was designed to investigate whether the intimate partner violence (IPV) suffered by mothers (physical and psychological maltreatment), child eyewitness of psychological and physical maltreatment suffered by the mother, the neglect suffered by children, and the maltreatment (physical and psychological) directly suffered by children are statistically assoc...

Child maltreatment is abuse or neglect of a child by a parent or other caregiver that results in potential or actual harm or threats of harm to a child. Maltreatment encompasses both acts of commission (abuse) and omission (neglect). Child maltreatment is divided into four types: 1) physical abuse (e.g., hitting, kicking, shaking, or burning); 2) sexual abuse (e.g., rape or fondling); 3) psycho...

OBJECTIVE To test, with a sample of adolescent mothers (16-20 at childbirth) and their first-born infants/toddlers (average age 1 year), whether the impact of a home visiting (HV) child maltreatment prevention program was moderated by maternal depression. METHODS The study design was a randomized controlled trial of Healthy Families Massachusetts, a statewide child maltreatment prevention pro...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether child physical maltreatment early in life has long-term effects on psychological, behavioral, and academic problems independent of other characteristics associated with maltreatment. DESIGN Prospective longitudinal study with data collected annually from 1987 through 1999. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Randomly selected, community-based samples of 585 children from...

It is well established that childhood maltreatment is an important predictor of marijuana use, but few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study examines marijuana motives as mediators of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and marijuana use in a sample of young adults. In addition, pathways from childhood maltreatment to emotion dysregulat...

Child maltreatment is a major public health problem associated with impairment in childhood, adolescence, and extending throughout the lifespan. Within Canada, high-quality child maltreatment studies have been conducted and are critical for informing prevention and intervention efforts. However, compared to other parts of the world (e.g., United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Mexi...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between childhood maltreatment and alcohol use disorders (AUDs), treatment utilization, and barriers to treatment in a national sample of emerging adults. Multiple types of maltreatment were examined, including childhood emotional abuse and neglect. METHOD The analyses are based on data from 18- to 25-year-olds (N = 4,468) wh...

In response to D. Cicchetti's (1998) and W. A. Mason's (1998) commentaries, this article scrutinizes infant maltreatment in monkeys and its public health implications. Studies of infant abuse and neglect in monkeys have used operational definitions based on (a) adult behavior or (b) adult behavior and infant outcome (depending on data available for analysis). Direct comparisons between the inci...

In two recent reports, Widom and colleagues (Raphael, Widom, & Lange, 2001; Widom, Weiler, & Cottler, 1999) found that prospective findings differed from retrospective findings in the same sample. In both studies, the prospective findings showed no relationship between maltreatment and two outcomes--chronic pain or substance abuse--but did find a relationship between maltreatment and these outc...

Calls for a public health approach to child maltreatment – a strategy that aims primarily to reduce risk factors for maltreatment have been based on four main arguments. (O’Donnell et al. 2008; Reading et al. 2009; Barlow and Calam, 2011) The right of children to be protected from harm in the first place. The frequency of child maltreatment, which, if all occurrences were notified, would overwh...