Causes and Effects of Child Abuse - A Longitudinal Study Of The Consequences Of Childhood Maltreatment

One of the most detailed longitudinal studies of the consequences of childhood maltreatment involved 908 children in a metropolitan area of the Midwest who were ages six to eleven when they were maltreated (between 1967 and 1971). A control group of 667 children with no history of childhood maltreatment was used for comparison. Each group had about two-thirds white and one-third African-American individuals, with about the same numbers of males and females. Cathy Spatz Widom examined the long-term consequences of childhood maltreatment on the subjects' intellectual, behavioral, social, and psychological development ("Childhood Victimization: Early Adversity, Later Psychopathology," National Institute of Justice Journal, January 2000). When the two groups were interviewed for the study, they had a median age (half were older, half were younger) of about twenty-nine years.

Widom found that, although both abused and control groups finished an average of 11.5 years of school, less than half of the abused group finished high school, compared with two-thirds of the control group. Thirteen percent of the abused group had stable marriages, compared with nearly 20% of the control group. The abused group was also more likely to experience frequent separation and divorce.

The Cycle of Violence

Widom is widely known for her work on the "cycle of violence." The cycle of violence theory suggests that childhood physical abuse increases the likelihood of arrest and of committing violent crime during the victim's later years. Widom found that, although a large proportion of maltreated children did not become juvenile delinquents or criminals, those who suffered childhood abuse or neglect were more likely than those with no reported maltreatment to be arrested as juveniles (31.2% versus 19%) and as adults (48.4% versus 36.2%). The maltreated victims (21%) were also more likely than those with no reported childhood maltreatment history (15.6%) to be arrested for a violent crime during their teen years or adulthood. (See Table 5.2.)

The author noted that the victims' later psychopathology (psychological disorders resulting from the childhood maltreatment) manifested itself in suicide attempts, anti-social personality, and alcohol abuse and/or dependence. Maltreatment victims were more likely than the control individuals to have attempted suicide (18.8% versus 7.7%) and to have manifested antisocial personality disorder (18.4% versus 11.2%). Both groups, however, did not

TABLE 5.2

Childhood victimization and later criminality
	Abuse/Neglect Group (676) %	Control Group (520) %
1p≤.05 2p≤.001
Note: Numbers in parentheses are numbers of cases.
SOURCE: Cathy Spatz Widom, "Table 1. Childhood Victimization and Later Criminality," in "Childhood Victimization, Early Adversity, Later Psychopathology," National Institute of Justice Journal, no. 242, January 2000
Arrest as juvenile	31.22	19.0
Arrest as adult	48.42	36.2
Arrest as juvenile or adult for any crime	56.52	42.5
Arrest as juvenile or adult for any violent crime	21.01	15.6

TABLE 5.3

Childhood victimization and later psychopathology
	Abuse/neglect group (676)	Control group (520)
Notes: Numbers in parentheses are numbers of cases.
Diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder and alcohol abuse/dependence were determined by using the National Institute of Mental Health DIS-III-R diagnostic interview.
SOURCE: Cathy Spatz Widom, "Table 2. Childhood Victimization and Later Psychopathology," in "Childhood Victimization, Early Adversity, Later Psychopathology," National Institute of Justice Journal, no. 242, January 2000, http://ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/jr000242b.pdf (accessed November 23, 2004)
	%	%
Suicide attempt	18.8	7.7
Antisocial personality disorder	18.4	11.2
Alcohol abuse/dependence	54.5	51.0

TABLE 5.4

Childhood victimization and later psychopathology, by gender
	Abuse/Neglect Group %	Control Group %
1p≤.05
2p≤.01
3p≤.001
Note: Numbers in parentheses are numbers of cases.
SOURCE: Cathy Spatz Widom, "Table 3. Childhood Victimization and Later Psychopathology, by Gender," in "Childhood Victimization, Early Adversity, Later Psychopathology," National Institute of Justice Journal, no. 242, January 2000
Females	(338)	(224)
Suicide attempt	24.33	8.6
Antisocial personality disorder	9.81	4.9
Alcohol abuse/dependence	43.82	32.8
Males	(338)	(276)
Suicide attempt	13.42	6.9
Antisocial personality disorder	27.02	16.7
Alcohol abuse/dependence	64.4	67.0

differ much in the rates of alcohol abuse/dependence (54.5% for the abused or neglected group and 51% for the control group). (See Table 5.3.)

Gender played a role in the development of psychological disorders in adolescence and adulthood. Females (24.3%) with a history of childhood maltreatment were more likely to attempt suicide, compared with their male counterparts (13.4%). A significantly larger percentage of male victims (27%), however, than female victims (9.8%) were at a higher risk for future antisocial personality dis-order. Although both male maltreated (64.4%) and control (67%) subjects had similar proportions of alcohol abuse or dependence, females who experienced abuse or neglect were more likely than the control group to have alcohol problems (43.8% versus 32.8%). (See Table 5.4.)

Cycle of Violence Updated

Another phase of the cycle of violence research was conducted when the maltreated and control groups had a median age of 32.5 years. Aside from collecting arrest records from federal, state, and local law enforcement, the researchers also conducted interviews with the subjects (Cathy S. Widom and Michael G. Maxfield, An Update on the "Cycle of Violence," U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Washington, DC, February 2001). Overall, the study found that childhood abuse or neglect increased the likelihood of arrest in adolescence by 59% and in adulthood by 28%. Childhood maltreatment also increased the likelihood of committing a violent crime by 30%.

While earlier analysis of the maltreated group found that most of the victims did not become offenders, this study showed that nearly half (49%) of the victims had experienced a nontraffic offense as teenagers or adults. Comparison by race showed that, while both white and African-American maltreated children had more arrests than the control group, there was no significant difference among whites in the maltreated (21.8%) and control (15.2%) groups. Among African-American children, however, the maltreated group had higher rates of arrests. Maltreated African-Americans were nearly twice as likely as their counterparts in the control group to be arrested as juveniles (40.6% versus 20.9%). (See Table 5.5.)

Widom and Maxfield also examined the type of childhood maltreatment that might lead to violence later in life. They found that physically abused children (21.1%) were the most likely to commit a violent crime in their teen or adult years, closely followed by those who experienced neglect (20.2%). Although the study showed that just 8.8% of children who had been sexually abused were arrested for violence, the researchers noted that the victims were mostly females, and "females less often had a record of violent offenses." (See Table 5.6.)