After reading about Child Maltreatment, I was interested in both the gender discrepancies in Maltreatment and the likelihood of Maltreatment leading to a juvenile offense. I found an article in the "Laws" Journal that answered both of my questions. This study, based in Missouri, focused on the female population in a juvenile facility. The author explains that what was once a very small population of female offenders is now increasing at a steady rate. The author further notes that many who study female offenders typically group them into one homogeneous group and reason for being in jail, while forgetting the subgroups. The subgroup that struck me was the amount of females that were maltreated that then became juvenile offenders. Researchers did find a significant number of offenders also experienced trauma during childhood, but what they did not find was a strong correlation between violent behavior and previous trauma. The majority of the girls in the juvenile facility that experienced trauma during childhood were in for non violence related crimes. I found this article especially interesting, because people tend to think that men commit crimes and forget about female offenders. I think it is even easier to forget about young female offenders, but this study has identified the risk factor of maltreatment and can hopefully help trauma victims early on before this risk of incarceration is increased. Dannerbeck-Janku, A., Peters, C., & Perkins, J. (2014). A Comparison of Female Delinquents: The Impact of Child Maltreatment Histories on Risk and Need Characteristics among a Missouri Sample. Laws, 3(4), 780–797. doi:10.3390/laws3040780
Your post was very interesting. I agree that people typically associate men with crime/jail. This summer I worked at the Lubbock Detention Center in the mental health department. I mostly worked with the men (teaching them life skills classes), but did have some contact with the female population. Reading through this post, I was able to connect some of the research you presented to my experience, which was very beneficial! I also like how you looked at gender differences, specifically, because some studies do not clearly recognize or define gender differences even though they are crucial to research. Overall, this was a great post!
Lauren, Your post really caught my attention, like Erin I worked at the Lubbock Detention Center last year in the mental health department. I too also worked mainly with the men, but when doing paper work for our mentor I had to read some documentation about what some of the women in the facility had gone through. Sometimes I even got to talk with them one-on-one and to hear their stories really does make you realize that a lot of times the focus is strictly on the men and their experiences as children. Research like this definitely helps to bring up the topic that women are just as likely to experience maltreatment as children, and run a high risk of ending up in a juvenile detention center.
I really liked the perspective you brought in about women! I also was interested in Erin and Mariah's responses, they brought in a good point of view. My minor is in forensic sciences and even in those classes, I feel like the focus on such criminal behavior is more on men that women. I am glad you made this post and found a study dealing with female inmates/offenders. Did the study happen to the females/what the correlation was about their experienced trauma and the nonviolent crimes they were in for? Great job!
Lauren, I found your post to be very interesting because of its focus on the correlation between maltreatment and juvenile delinquency. To me, its understandable that these young women who experienced child maltreatment grew up to become juvenile delinquents. This is because for developing children, their environment has an incredible impact on their lives. Children who experienced maltreatment of any kind might assume that those sort of behaviors are normal, and they might participate in them as they get older. One example of this might be experiencing abuse as a form of maltreatment. If a child is abused at home, they could be more likely to be abusive towards others outside of their home. Another possible explanation for this correlation might be how child maltreatment effects a child's cognition, behaviors and emotions. Simply put, a toxic environment could make a child more prone to involving themselves in dangerous behaviors.
Lauren, This is a great question! I personally didn't think about the connection between what women get convicted and trauma. I thought it was interesting that there were more women convicted were for nonphysical crimes. I thought this was also interesting because they were still offenders but for a different crime (I assume). I think it would be interesting if they showed a connection between what type maltreatment and what crime they later convicted. Great post!
Lauren- Interesting post! I would have thought that there was a correlation with abuse as a child and violence in the future! I'm surprised to see that is not the case. It in some ways makes me happy that bad experiences in the past can be overcome and not affect the future. It is somewhat resilience. Very interesting post! Thank you for sharing!
As I recall in class, a recurrent topic in class is gender difference across all disorders. This difference is girls tend to externalize more, as boys tend to be more external with their emotions or more physical. While most of us image a criminal as violent and mostly men, that is not the full reality, and your article points this out. I find it very interesting that the female juvenile population is increasing, specifically in non violent crimes due. As it seems that most of the female juvenile population has had some form of maltreatment, it doesn't not always result in violence, resonating the recurrent topic of girls internalization. My question is what kind of non violent crimes are these?
This was a super interesting post because I did not think about girls who experience maltreatment and trauma turning around and doing something to land them in prison. I usually think that people who are victims stay victims throughout most of their lives. It was really interesting to see that some of these girls probably could've gotten help when they were young and maybe they would not be in jail. Overall, very good post!
After reading through the textbook chapters covering intellectual developmental disorder (IDD) and trauma- and stressor- related disorders, I was interested in IDD, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and the interaction of these two. The development of PTSD is prevalent in children who were maltreated (i.e. neglected or abused), and I wanted to know how this specific comorbidity could affect a child. I began to wonder: Does a child with an intellectual disability and PTSD look different from a child without an intellectual disability? Does a child with an intellectual disability and PTSD require different measures in clinical assessment than a child without an intellectual disability?
There is little research regarding the clinical assessment of PTSD in people who are intellectually disabled. In one study, children with mild to borderline IDD manifested the same PTSD symptoms as a child without an intellectual disability. The children with IDD were also given a clinical interview for PTSD to measure their capacity to comprehend/complete the interview. Results indicated that children with IDD do not require a modified version of the clinical assessment process for PTSD. This study was very insightful, and it answered my question; however, I would like to know if the same results would stand for children with a more severe form of IDD (i.e. severe IDD).
Mevissen, L., Barnhoorn, E., Didden, R., Korzilius, H., & De Jongh, A. (2014, February). Clinical assessment of PTSD in children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities: A pilot study. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 17(1), 16-23. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from PsycINFO.
Erin, This is a very interesting topic! I wondered if children who were diagnosed with IDD could fully comprehend everything that they had experienced as well as individuals who were not diagnosed with IDD but experienced some form of child abuse and developed PTSD as well? Also, children who were diagnosed with both PTSD and IDD do they end up experiencing the same level of psychological distress as adults as individuals who have PTSD but not an IDD?
Hi Erin, I found your post very interesting. It would make sense that PTSD and IDD could have a significant comorbidity after discussing in class today about how the rate of abuse is high among those with IDD. I feel as though PTSD could be made even more painful in a person with IDD, if they had an extreme cognitive deficit and could not make sense of why they were feeling a certain way.
Hey Erin, This was a good question to raise, and not really something I thought about until we talked about it in class Tuesday. Few people, like myself, think about people with IDD as ones to fall feat to maltreatment. So studying what affect this later had on them PTSD wise is a great question to raise. Great job.
Erin- Great thought! I would have thought IDD would affect the way PTSD is seen or formed. I am surprised that it does not. I hope more studies like this are conducted, because I am very intrigued. I would think that a more severe form of IDD would make changes in clinical assessments. Overall, great post! Very interesting thought!
This was a really interesting question to pose. I like how you combined the ideas of intellectual disability and PTSD. I would think they would certainly need different means of clinical assessment. I thought it was interesting that the assessment does not require any modification. I also would like to see a study done with children with more severe IDD or even with a more severe version of PTSD.
Erin, interesting topic to come across! I would find that one with IDD would have more trouble in general communicating the symptoms of PSTD but would be likely to get the disorder if not more vulnerable since they to more disorders. I would want to know which symptoms were more commonly found among the children with IDD and those without. I found your post insightful and would also like to know more about severe cases as well.
This chapter really strikes a chord for me personally due to the fact that I was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by my biological father. So while reading this chapter a lot of it was quite familiar, and resonated with experiences I have had. A question that came across my mind while reading this was, are individuals who were victims of child maltreatment currently experiencing psychological problems as adults?
In the study that I found, a group of 210 college freshmen were given a questionnaire regarding any child maltreatment they may have experienced, along with questions about peer bullying, and the level of psychological distress they are experiencing to this day. It was found that individuals who were bullied had higher levels of physical trauma from their parents and experienced more sexual assaults than individuals who were not bullied. Results also found that individuals who were bullied and experienced abused reported having higher levels of psychological distress as an adult as opposed to individuals who were bullied but experienced no abuse, abused but experienced no bullying, or experienced neither bullying or abuse.
This shows just how lasting of an impact something like this can leave, I strongly believe if individuals had obtained helped at a very young age the level of psychological distress that they experience as adults would have been abysmal if not nonexistent.
Duncan, R.D. 1999. Maltreatment by Parents and Peers: The Relationship between Child Abuse, Bully Victimization, and Psychological Distress. Child Maltreatment, 4(1), 45-55.
Thank you for sharing your story- it was brave and inspiring! This topic in class is the most interesting to me by far. I am not surprised at the results in the study, as I have seen such results in personal experiences with family, friends, and in some of the organizations I am involved with on campus that deal with assault/abuse. I agree with your statement that society needs to realize the lasting impact of abuse and that we can work towards decreasing such of a lasting impact.
Mariah, I respect you for having the courage to share your story. You did an excellent job of relating your personal experiences with our discussion topic. You're right, if individuals who experience any form of maltreatment are provided with the aid that they need, it would make an incredibly positive impact on many lives. Reading your post reminded me of the study I discussed in my blog post. That study showed how effective positive parenting programs were in preventing child maltreatment. Whether we as a society are working to prevent child maltreatment or working to aid those already effected by it, I feel it is important that proactive steps be taken against something so damaging. Thank you for sharing.
Mariah, as everyone else has also stated, thank you for feeling comfortable enough to speak of your own experiences to help relate the question to what we are learning, and show how it does affect people. I agree with Morgan, I am not surprised by the results of this study due to the fact that it's true when people say words hurt, but actions hurt worse. These things do stay with you and unfortunately our brains like to keep the bad more than the good. Thanks again for sharing.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. It is sometimes hard for us to remember that the prevalency numbers we learn about in class for these disorders and maltreatment cases are actual people. This chapter strikes a chord with me as well, as I have a close friend who was sexually abused as a child by one of her relatives. She opened up to me about her struggles and how it has affected her life daily. Since I have seen the effects of child maltreatment withing my friend, the results of your study do not surprise me, either. I also agree with your statement that if children who have been mistreated are exposed to therapy or intervention at a young age are more likely to have a positive prognosis compared to those who go unreported or untreated. Thank you again for sharing with us. I admire the courage that must have taken for you to open up to us about this traumatic experience.
Hi Mariah, your post was really inspiring. I completely agree that if we could identify kids who experienced trauma earlier so we could get them help earlier, it would relieve a lot of distress in later adulthood that could affect relationships. I hope that teachers and educators experience some training in looking for the effects of abuse on their students to help get them help.
This chapter has been the most interesting for me to read. Abuse (psychological, physical, emotional, and even sexual) is an area I have always been passionate to study and what had lead me to become so interested in laws after years of studying/learning. Moving on, during the reading I became interested in learning about disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED)- possible outcome of social neglect. While looking at the symptoms, I asked myself, could this be found in children who have been adopted, as adopted children may be exposed to social neglect?
The article I found stated that 20% of adopted children experience disinhibited social engagement disorder. DSED was assessed over four times during the first two years of adopted children and non-adopted children. Results found that at age of 5 was when most of these children met the diagnostic for DSED. Adopted children had higher DSED levels and steeper increase rate compared to the non-adopted children. It is completely understandable about adopted children having these greater risk of DSED, but I was shocked at the amount and how early of an onset. I hope therapies and treatments can help prevent such disorders in adopted children.
Lawler, J. M., Koss, K. J., Doyle, C. M., & Gunnar, M. R. (2016). The course of early disinhibited social engagement among post‐institutionalized adopted children. Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry, 57(10), 1126-1134. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12606
This post was very interesting to read! I like how you looked at adoption and how it interacts with DSED in children because I did not think about that topic. I was surprised that DSED was so different and elevated in adopted children, and I wonder if that heightened difference is due to stress from foster care and everything that comes with it or if it is more likely due to the severity of their abuse. This post was intriguing, and I am very interested in looking deeper into this topic. Great job!
Morgan, I like the perspective that you brought to this. I didn't think to consider neglect in children who are adopted. I know many people who are adopted and have children that are adopted so I found this particularly interesting. I unfortunately are not surprised by the numbers. I know from personal experience that some of my friends that are adopted that they feel neglected even as an older adult. I hope that therapies can help these children as well.
Good Post! It's a sad topic and I agree that more research is needed to develop better therapies and treatments. I would have guessed that adopted kids would be at more of a risk for a disorder like DSED. I was shocked like you said that the age of onset was at only 5 years old. I was also curious if the rates of DSED increase more with in the ages of older adopted kids?
This interesting because DSED is a disorder I really do not know much about. Your narrowing down on adopted children is a very unique and specific topic, which always makes for interesting research. I think this data was so discouraging. I really would not expect the percentage to be that high. I agree with you that the early onset is also shocking and rather unfortunate. This is a situation where I would like to see this study with twins where we can then look deeper into the emotional aspects of the disorder in similar gene.
I found your post extremely interesting. I wonder if this study would also hold true for children who are in foster care as well. I think they might also suffer from DSED since foster homes are not considered stable environments.
During chapter twelve, in the diagnostic criteria mentions experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event. Then the book goes on to mention first responders and that the police come into contact of exposure through details of child abuse. My brother previously had the job of being a first responder in ambulances for three years. Living with him, he never really expressed any symptoms of PTSD but this could be due to a multitude of factors. He started first responding older, does not have childhood victimization, and could be environment could have parts to play. I wanted to know a little bit more about the likelihood of PTSD in first responders and the certain types of exposure that makes them more susceptible to PTSD. There is a study that was done in 2013 about first responders and police that responded to hurricane Katrina in 2005. The study concentrated on childhood victimization and if this cause affected the participants of the study. Childhood victimization, in this study, is trauma exposure before the age of 18. Races could not be defined in the study because this would compromise the identity of some of the workers since the majority were white (90.2%). One conclusion of theirs was, “…findings suggest that early physical victimization is not uncommon among police officers and firefighters, and that it is associated with worse mental health outcomes after serving as a first-responder in major natural disaster”. Early childhood abuse experienced by the participants was just one factor in the mental health outcomes after responding to the hurricane. One piece of information that I got from the study is that experienced trauma in childhood, such as physical abuse or threats, could lead to vulnerability of psychopathology in adulthood. The study wanted to highlight that,” it might be unique to first-responders to Hurricane Katrina and similar large-scale disasters”, possibly concluding that this was a unique finding within the participants. PTSD symptoms were higher in the participants that self-reported childhood victimization. With significance data in this study, the area of psychopathology in adulthood with maltreatment in childhood in, regards to PTSD, should further be looked into. Komarovskaya, I., Brown, A. D., Galatzer-Levy, I. R., Madan, A., Henn-Haase, C., Teater, J., & ... Chemtob, C. M. (2014). Early physical victimization is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among Mississippi police and firefighter first responders to Hurricane Katrina. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy, 6(1), 92-96. doi:10.1037/a0031600
Hey Chris, Seriously great question! It never even crossed my mind that first responders have the potential to get PTSD from their experiences. Based on your research findings I wonder if people who have experienced childhood trauma are more motivated to work in a field that they can prevent such occurrences in some way (i.e police officers, first responders.) I also agree with you in that more studies should be looked into because I know PTSD is big in soldiers coming home from war, but I don't think people realize other professions can accumulate experiences that may be cause PTSD later.
Child maltreatment of any kind can have negative effects on a child and the family members involved. However, despite these negative effects, child maltreatment and abuse is still present in our society. There are several different programs that are available to the families who have experienced child maltreatment, and serve the purpose of working to prevent any future instances of child maltreatment. I wanted to know: how effective are these programs in reducing occurrences of child maltreatment and child abuse cases? One study done by Altafim and Linhares in 2015 reviewed different child maltreatment prevention programs on their levels of effectiveness. Sixteen different programs were reviewed in this study, all of which were structured interventions and designed to work with groups of parents to improve their parental practices. More specifically, the programs reviewed in this study aimed to reduce violence and other forms of maltreatment by promoting and teaching positive parenting practices. According to the study, the programs that were evaluated mainly focused on helping parents gain a better understanding of child development, learn effective parenting skills, promoting the use of non-violent parenting approaches, and creating a harmonious relationship between parent and child. It is important to note that these programs did not directly address violence and maltreatment towards children, but rather focused on the positive and beneficial ways a parent could approach their child. The results showed that these programs and their tactics were proven effective towards the prevention of child maltreatment. In fact, the study recommended that programs such as the ones in this study be used universally. This is because the programs were able to give parents the tools they needed to better understand their children, as well as parent them in a more beneficial and healthy way. When parents are given the knowledge to handle their children in a positive manner, they are less likely to resort to forms of maltreatment. Altafim, Elisa R.P., and Maria B.M. Linhares. "Universal Violence and Child Maltreatment Prevention Programs for Parents: A Systematic Review." Psychosocial Intervention 25 (2015): 27-38. Web
Hi Lacy, I enjoyed your post! I think it is very beneficial and smart that these studies focused on helping the parents better understand their children and improve the parent-child relationship. I think otherwise if they focused on the violence and maltreatment the parents may have felt threatened/offended which could make them less open to the prevention program.
Good job on your post. I think that overall this study reveals that it is better for parents to be aware of what can be considered an abusive behavior towards children. I feel like this training could be an eye opener for many people since they may not know about a certain thing that they considered 'it's not abusive' towards their children. It also makes parents more aware to see if other parents are mistreating their children. I always say that education makes people more aware of issues that they may not even know of, so programs like this are always beneficial for anyone.
Reading this chapter on child maltreatment really made me sad and mad because I cannot imagine what these children have gone through. I want to work with people with PTSD when I graduate so I was very interested in reading that part of the chapter. I wanted to know if different forms of abuse would cause different side effects or if they would all result in some sort of PTSD.
I found a study done by Peggy T Ackerman, Joseph E.O Newtona, W.Brian McPhersona, Jerry G Jonesa and Roscoe A Dykman. They did a study called "Prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric diagnoses in three groups of abused children (sexual, physical, and both)" in which they compared PTSD and other comorbid diagnosis in the three different groups of abused kids. In this study, they found that children who have been physically and sexually abused were more likely to have a high risk of psychiatric problems. They also stated that the just sexually abused group was less disturbed than the other two groups. This study also found that PTSD was usually comorbid with other disorders. Throughout their research they also found that boys externalize more often while girl internalize and that children abused by males had more psychiatric problems than children abused by females. Overall it was a very interesting study but a very sad topic to have to do research on.
Ackerman, Peggy T., Joseph E. O. Newtona, W. Brian McPhersona, Jerry G. Jonesa, and Roscoe A. Dykman. "Prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Other Psychiatric Diagnoses in Three Groups of Abused Children (sexual, Physical, and Both)." ChildAbuse and Neglect 22.8 (1998): 759-74. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
This fits in well with what I know about the diathesis-stress model--mainly, that more stress makes your original propensity to develop psychopathology less important. Further, that kind of PTSD symptoms--internalizing v. externalizing fits with what we were talking about with ADHD and other disorders. I'm a little curious about the biological vs. environmental determinants of that behavior.
I found your post very interesting. I think that the finding on children being abused by males were more likely to have psychiatric problems was a good finding. I really thought that children labeled with sexual abuse were going to have higher psychiatric problems compared to the physically abused children. That itself, made me think of the children's ability to interpret the situation they were in and maybe perhaps they didn't know of what was going on when the sexual abuse started. Overall, it was an interesting finding this research did in determining the psychiatric problems in these children.
While reading the chapter on child maltreatment, I wondered how many children later act on self-injury towards themselves due to growing up abused and continuing the pattern on them. According to Cornell's Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery, up to 79% of individuals that self-harm report some form of physical or sexual abuse in their past. The link that is possibly connecting maltreatment and self-injury is thought to be a way to compensate for abnormalities in development that were not formed correctly due to the inability to adapt while being abused. I thought about this question because I have a close friend of mine that was abused while growing up, and later self-harmed. I also dealt with mental health issues growing up and I wanted to see if there was a stronger correlation to the maltreatment or just general mental health issues with no maltreatment background. It was interesting to see the facts and how much it is impacted by things such as abuse.
Fleming, M., & Aronson, L. (n.d.). The relationship between non-suicidal self-injury and child maltreatmen. Retrieved October 26, 2016, from http://www.selfinjury.bctr.cornell.edu/perch/resources/the-relationship-between-child-maltreatment-and-non-suicidal-self-injuryfinal.pdf
Good Post! its alarming that almost 80% of kids will later self harm themselves do to maltreatment. I think this is a good topic that needs more research. It could help alot of abused kids later in life, who are resorting to self harm. I don't know alot about this topic, but im curious if the self harm is a coping mechanism?
Shawn, yes for many people it is used as a coping mechanism. The article stated 3 reasons for turning to self-harm; Regulatory, Representational, and Reactive as all overlapping and interacting.
I wondering if the connection of maltreatment through these children's life and later self-harm could be some type of behaviors conditioning response, more specifically within physical abuse. As the child is growing up in these abusive conditions, they are conditioned through their parents abuse. For example, say the child spills a glass of milk, and the parents physically abuses them every time they spill, could the child be conditioned to learn that this kind of accidental behavior is wrong and will result in physical harm, and later on in life they associate these accidental behaviors with self-abuse. Besides the question of behavioral response, I found the blog alarming interesting anf significant enough to be further questioned.
This was a very interesting post because I too have a friend who suffered from abuse as a child and would harm herself when she was feeling down. I do think there is a strong connection to maltreatment and selfharm especially as a way to cope with what happened to them. It is very sad but it does happen. Overall a very good post!
Great post! I strongly feel there is a connection between self harm and child maltreatment. I know it was the case for myself and others I know who went through horrible things. It's extremely sad to think about. Great post and question!
Child maltreatment is a hard topic to discuss because I feel like it’s such a sensitive topic not only to me but others as well. I was originally wanting to do research on neglect but while looking I stumbled upon a very interesting article to me. This article was about parents who fabricated illnesses for their children. I originally assumed that would mean the parent created this illness as a way of abuse for their child but reading lead me in a different direction. In this study they looked at how pediatricians also can unfortunately go along with the parents just so they can get more money. In this study they looked at parents who fabricated symptoms and sometimes had their children undergo unnecessary surgery. About half of the cases that were reported had to deal with suffocating or poisoning. Then in addition, 92% of the children had to be in in-patient care due to the abuse. The results in a follow up study done with the same children showed that none of the children had a genuine disease. Another unfortunate statistic is that one fourth of the children were disabled due to their fabricated diseases. The benefit of this study was that doctors and nurses became more aware of the issue and are more cautious of children that come in for treatment frequently. Although this is a less common form of child maltreatment, it is unfortunate and shocking to what extent people put their children through.
Davis, P. (2009). Fabricated or induced illness in children: The pediatrician's role. Paediatrics and Child Health, 19(11), 498-508. doi:10.1016/j.paed.2009.06.001
This is an interesting study. I know that doctors follow a strict code of ethics, so it's awful to think of them as doing unnecessary surgeries. Isn't the first code of ethics, do no harm? I find it extremely sad that there are some children that are now hindered from the surgeries. However, I'm glad this study was conducted to bring awareness to the topic.
Is the study in question Munchhausen's by proxy? That's a really fascinating disorder (disturbing and awful, too, of course). And it's crazy what people (especially moms) will do to fabricate symptoms. I'm curious about the developmental pathways that might encourage a mother to lash out like that, if it's linked to child temperament or mroe about lack of social support?
Leeann, This is so interesting! I heave heard of maybe one or two of these cases in the media. It is not as common or just not as commonly reported! I also saw that most of the parents tend to have Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which is where a parent (usually mother) does extreme things in order to fake symptoms of an illness in their child. They also tend to move or switch doctors often until they find a doctor who will treat their "symptoms." It is very sad that the study found children who suffer from this maltreatment are often left disabled. I hope in the future there is more precaution and research done by the medical professionals that deal with these situations. This would help these cases get reported to authorities and shed more light on situations like this!
When reading this CH I was curious how a child with IDD would interact socially with other peers and if they would develop any normal friendships. I found some pretty cool research that was done on kids with pretty severe autism, IDD, Cerebral Palsy, and Down Syndrome. The interesting part with these adolescents was that some of them were non speaking. So to measure if they were making friendships they used video data.
To measure friendship, they measured characteristics involving friendships, mainly proximity and similarity. What they found was that kids did make friendships with people in the same classroom that were the same age. However they didn't make any friendships in extracurricular activities. In the video evidence they did find that IDD kids would make friends with non disabled kids. When they interviewed kids with IDD they found that most of the kids were able to make satisfactory relationships.
This was encouraging research, that showed that even severely disabled or non speaking adolescents could develop somewhat normal satisfactory friendships. Although it is certainly much more difficult for these kids to have a lot of friends. With that being said this study didn't have that many participants and more research needs to be done.
Moore-Dean, A., Renwick, R., & Schormans, A. F. (2016). Friendship Characteristics of Children with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities: Qualitative Evidence from Video Data. Journal On Developmental Disabilities, 22(1), 39-51.
After reading chapter 12, I was intrigued by Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED). After learning more about this disorder I couldn't help but wonder if adopted children suffer from this disorder. Do to the fact that once they are in the foster care system that can have multiple caregivers, who may not always treat them the way a human deserves to be treated.
I found a study done by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, in Helsinki, Finland. The study examined the associations between RAD, DSED, and later psychological problems with international adoptees. The study was made up of adopted children (591 boys and 768 girls) ages 6-15 from an ongoing Finnish adoption study. Data was gathered through questionnaires given to the adoptive parents as well as the children that were adopted who were over the age of 9. From the questionnaires researches found that these children suffered not only from symptoms of RAD and DSED, but also were at a heightened rick for emotional problems, behavioral problems, and even ADHD.
I wasn't shocked at all by this study, because it makes completely sense as to why these children would show symptoms from these disorders, or even the disorders themselves. The only thing that I can't get over is that this study was done in Finland, I can only imagine how much worse it would be in the United States.
Elovainio, M., Raaska, H., Sinkkonen, J., Mäkipää, S., & Lapinleimu, H. (2015). Associations between attachment‐related symptoms and later psychological problems among international adoptees: Results from the FinAdo study. Scandinavian Journal Of Psychology, 56(1), 53-61. doi:10.1111/sjop.12174
DSED probably happens a lot with children in adoption agencies. The disorder may even be common just when children are starting school too. People have different interpretations of what it means to be treated like a human based on experience so i would want to know your take on that a little more for children. I like the fact that you brought up the limitations of the study in Finland and made the reader think about what that would look like in the U.S. I would like to know more about how likely children with DSED are to be emotionally abused since this is the least likely form of abuse i would think they would be vulnerable to. You have a great post!
This chapter really hits home for me. As I was reading some of the comments above one of them stood out to me because I've had a similar experience as her. When I was younger I was physically, and sexually abused by my step-dad at the time. Whenever I finally came out in the open about it (years later) it was all about me and how I was dealing with it and if I was okay. I hated the attention because I hated talking about it. I had always wondered though how my mom took it when she found out and how it affected her. So my question is how do the parents or at least one of the parents if the other is the one who did the sexual abuse handle the situation of their child being a victim to any type of abuse?
The article I found stated that 27% to 56% of mothers are able to support their child post-disclosure. It says that the mothers are the most important part of the child having a successful intervention. If a mother is there and being supportive and showing that they can help and be their for their child it lowers the risk of the child being removed from the home and prevents re-victimization. The article also says that the child can also benefit if the mother also receives support. In a recent longitudinal study it found that some mothers suffered more emotional distress at the "initial interview" following the disclosure that can't be fully explained by pathology.
The rest of the article discussed an examination between foster parents and biological parents. The results showed that biological parents suffered more distress than those that were non-relative caregivers.
Lipton, M. (1997). The effect of the primary caretaker's distress on the sexually abused child: A comparison of biological and foster parents. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 14(2), 115-127. doi:10.1023/A:1024505216535
I think you bring up an interesting point that may not normally be considered in most of these cases. We tend to focus on the direct victim of these cases for obvious reasons, but it seems that we rarely focus on how these events can effect other close family members and relationships with people close to the victim. I find it a bit alarming that your study stated that mothers are the, "most important part of the child having a successful intervention," however only 27 to 56 percent of mothers successfully support their child post-maltreatment.
I found your post extremely interesting, and I wanted to thank you for being vulnerable enough to open up about your past. I admire your courage in being able to talk about this. I am truly sorry that you had to endure that kind of pain and suffering.
While reading through the causes of maltreatment, it was more then evident that the parent, family member, and/or guardians were the front of it. The fact that another being in relation to the child is to blame for the maltreatment is fact that I wish to be false. This fact opened a vault of question. The most concerning question was to know if this abusive relationship is a repetitive cycle. Do abused children become abused parents? Fortunately there is a journal article entitled this very same question. The basics of this article were a literature review of case history studies, agency records, clinical interviews and self-report questions. Each literature review was cross-examined for history of abuse, and current abuse. While each source varied in the definitions of history of abuse, current abuse, and data interpretation, the finding answered the question. The article found the results not to be significant but dependent. It was suggested that one in every three individuals of physical abuse, sexual abuse or extreme neglect would continue this maltreatment as a parent to their child. However, this cyclical abuse contains many factors and these factors have many pathways. The pathway between abuse and child rearing is neither direct nor inevitable.
Kaufman, J., & Zigler, E. (1986) Do abused children become abusive parents? American journal of orthopsychiatry, 57 (2), 186-192. doi: http://dx.doi.org.lib-e2.lib.ttu.edu/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1987.tb03528.x
That's a really good question! It would seem to make sense that if a child was abused in any way that they might carry that over to their adult lives. 1 in every 3 children to carry it on to treating their child that way seems like a lot to me as well! Good post!
Coming from a military family, I know what it's like for a parent to have to take long deployments and many during my childhood. I remember my stress levels were through the roof when my dad was gone for long periods of time and without many means of communication. After reading more about trauma-and stressor related disorders I became intrigued by the thought of how PTSD in soldiers may affect their children.
It was hard to find enough evidence to answer my question, but I did find a study thats objective was to examine the behavioral and emotional adjustment problems in children aged 6-12 of active duty Army or Marine Corps parents that were currently deployed or recently returning from Afghanistan or Iraq. I found this research interesting because it also showed some of the impacts of current deployment on children in which it mentions something that reminded me of the chapter- ongoing risks include child maltreatment related to deployments. It also talks about how the mental health of the civilian parent (usually mom) is highly influential in determining child adjustment. The study's final model for child outcomes was based on the analysis of linear regression models. Some of the final results indicated that Active Duty PTSD symptoms predicted child depression and internalizing & externalizing behaviors.
I was quite surprised with how much the actual At-Home civilian has more of an effect on the child, but with that said I can understand because the pressures and stress is put on whoever is raising the kids.
Lester, P., Peterson, K., Reeves, J., Knauss, L., Glover, D., Mogil, C., Beardslee, W. (2010). The Long War and Parental Combat Deployment: Effects on Military Children and At-Home Spouses. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(4), 310-320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.01.003
While reading about child maltreatment, I wondered if it could cause disorders or make the disorders worse in children that had already been diagnosed. I was also curious if child maltreatment had more correlation with a specific disorder or if it was a wide array of various disorders.
I found a study by Éthier, Lemelin, and Lacharité that looked at the level of chronically maltreated children and their behavioral and emotional problems over time. They studied 32 victims of chronic maltreatment and 14 victims of transitory maltreatment. They found out that children that were chronically maltreated were more prone to emotional issues; such as anxiety and depression. They also showed more aggression and withdrawal than those in the transitory category. They concluded that chronic levels of maltreatment need to be assessed before deciding how much maltreatment had impacted the child. It also stated that chronically maltreated children are more at risk to developing a clinical condition.
I was not very surprised by their findings, because the more severe a child is maltreated, the more severe the consequences and impact it has on the child. However, the study did not say if any of the children had been previously diagnosed with a disorder. The only two disorders that were specifically associated as an affect of the maltreatment were anxiety and depression. These were some of the disorders I had anticipated to be correlated with maltreatment, but they did not say any mood or conduct disorder was specifically linked.
Éthier, L. S., Lemelin, J., & Lacharité, C. (2004). A longitudinal study of the effects of chronic maltreatment on children's behavioral and emotional problems. Child Abuse & Neglect, 28(12), 1265-1278. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2004.07.006
While reading the section on maltreatment, it came to mind that we discussed in class that children with disabilities are often victims of abuse. We talked about why and mentioned that the abuse could be under reported, the abuser could find them as easy targets, these children are hard to deal with causing a lack in patience, as well as a few other circumstances.
This made me question: Are children with disabilities more likely to be victims of maltreatment than those who do not have disabilities?
In the article I found called "Maltreatment among children with disabilities", it is stated that the majority of child maltreatment cases are happening in dysfunction families and those living in difficult circumstances. Among these, children with developmental disabilities seem to represent a larger amount. In the late 1970s, research mentioned in this article stated that the number of disabled children abused out ranked those without disabilities by about 3.5 times as much as the general population.
Theses results are unfortunately spot on with what I had predicted, it does not surprise me that children with disabilities receive more abuse that those without. As if the lives of these children aren't already hard, they also have to live day to day facing abuse.
Goldson, E. (2001, April). Maltreatment Among Children with Disabilities. Infants & Young Children: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Early Childhood Intervention (INFANTS YOUNG CHILD), 13(4), 44-54. doi:10.1037/e500792015-224
Kristen, Great Post! I was not very surprised by these findings. However, learning that children with disabilities are victims of abuse 3.5 times more than those without disabilities was an eye opener. This is a sad reality, therefore, more should be done in order to easily help those with disabilities and how to recognize maltreatment and abuse.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading about Child Maltreatment, I was interested in both the gender discrepancies in Maltreatment and the likelihood of Maltreatment leading to a juvenile offense. I found an article in the "Laws" Journal that answered both of my questions.
ReplyDeleteThis study, based in Missouri, focused on the female population in a juvenile facility. The author explains that what was once a very small population of female offenders is now increasing at a steady rate. The author further notes that many who study female offenders typically group them into one homogeneous group and reason for being in jail, while forgetting the subgroups. The subgroup that struck me was the amount of females that were maltreated that then became juvenile offenders. Researchers did find a significant number of offenders also experienced trauma during childhood, but what they did not find was a strong correlation between violent behavior and previous trauma. The majority of the girls in the juvenile facility that experienced trauma during childhood were in for non violence related crimes.
I found this article especially interesting, because people tend to think that men commit crimes and forget about female offenders. I think it is even easier to forget about young female offenders, but this study has identified the risk factor of maltreatment and can hopefully help trauma victims early on before this risk of incarceration is increased.
Dannerbeck-Janku, A., Peters, C., & Perkins, J. (2014). A Comparison of Female Delinquents: The Impact of Child Maltreatment Histories on Risk and Need Characteristics among a Missouri Sample. Laws, 3(4), 780–797. doi:10.3390/laws3040780
Lauren,
DeleteYour post was very interesting. I agree that people typically associate men with crime/jail. This summer I worked at the Lubbock Detention Center in the mental health department. I mostly worked with the men (teaching them life skills classes), but did have some contact with the female population. Reading through this post, I was able to connect some of the research you presented to my experience, which was very beneficial! I also like how you looked at gender differences, specifically, because some studies do not clearly recognize or define gender differences even though they are crucial to research. Overall, this was a great post!
Erin Cameron
Lauren,
DeleteYour post really caught my attention, like Erin I worked at the Lubbock Detention Center last year in the mental health department. I too also worked mainly with the men, but when doing paper work for our mentor I had to read some documentation about what some of the women in the facility had gone through. Sometimes I even got to talk with them one-on-one and to hear their stories really does make you realize that a lot of times the focus is strictly on the men and their experiences as children. Research like this definitely helps to bring up the topic that women are just as likely to experience maltreatment as children, and run a high risk of ending up in a juvenile detention center.
Lauren,
DeleteI really liked the perspective you brought in about women! I also was interested in Erin and Mariah's responses, they brought in a good point of view. My minor is in forensic sciences and even in those classes, I feel like the focus on such criminal behavior is more on men that women. I am glad you made this post and found a study dealing with female inmates/offenders. Did the study happen to the females/what the correlation was about their experienced trauma and the nonviolent crimes they were in for?
Great job!
Lauren,
DeleteI found your post to be very interesting because of its focus on the correlation between maltreatment and juvenile delinquency. To me, its understandable that these young women who experienced child maltreatment grew up to become juvenile delinquents. This is because for developing children, their environment has an incredible impact on their lives. Children who experienced maltreatment of any kind might assume that those sort of behaviors are normal, and they might participate in them as they get older. One example of this might be experiencing abuse as a form of maltreatment. If a child is abused at home, they could be more likely to be abusive towards others outside of their home. Another possible explanation for this correlation might be how child maltreatment effects a child's cognition, behaviors and emotions. Simply put, a toxic environment could make a child more prone to involving themselves in dangerous behaviors.
Lauren,
DeleteThis is a great question! I personally didn't think about the connection between what women get convicted and trauma. I thought it was interesting that there were more women convicted were for nonphysical crimes. I thought this was also interesting because they were still offenders but for a different crime (I assume). I think it would be interesting if they showed a connection between what type maltreatment and what crime they later convicted. Great post!
Lauren-
DeleteInteresting post! I would have thought that there was a correlation with abuse as a child and violence in the future! I'm surprised to see that is not the case. It in some ways makes me happy that bad experiences in the past can be overcome and not affect the future. It is somewhat resilience.
Very interesting post! Thank you for sharing!
Lauren,
DeleteAs I recall in class, a recurrent topic in class is gender difference across all disorders. This difference is girls tend to externalize more, as boys tend to be more external with their emotions or more physical. While most of us image a criminal as violent and mostly men, that is not the full reality, and your article points this out. I find it very interesting that the female juvenile population is increasing, specifically in non violent crimes due. As it seems that most of the female juvenile population has had some form of maltreatment, it doesn't not always result in violence, resonating the recurrent topic of girls internalization. My question is what kind of non violent crimes are these?
Lauren,
DeleteThis was a super interesting post because I did not think about girls who experience maltreatment and trauma turning around and doing something to land them in prison. I usually think that people who are victims stay victims throughout most of their lives. It was really interesting to see that some of these girls probably could've gotten help when they were young and maybe they would not be in jail.
Overall, very good post!
After reading through the textbook chapters covering intellectual developmental disorder (IDD) and trauma- and stressor- related disorders, I was interested in IDD, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and the interaction of these two. The development of PTSD is prevalent in children who were maltreated (i.e. neglected or abused), and I wanted to know how this specific comorbidity could affect a child. I began to wonder: Does a child with an intellectual disability and PTSD look different from a child without an intellectual disability? Does a child with an intellectual disability and PTSD require different measures in clinical assessment than a child without an intellectual disability?
ReplyDeleteThere is little research regarding the clinical assessment of PTSD in people who are intellectually disabled. In one study, children with mild to borderline IDD manifested the same PTSD symptoms as a child without an intellectual disability. The children with IDD were also given a clinical interview for PTSD to measure their capacity to comprehend/complete the interview. Results indicated that children with IDD do not require a modified version of the clinical assessment process for PTSD. This study was very insightful, and it answered my question; however, I would like to know if the same results would stand for children with a more severe form of IDD (i.e. severe IDD).
Mevissen, L., Barnhoorn, E., Didden, R., Korzilius, H., & De Jongh, A. (2014, February). Clinical assessment of PTSD in children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities: A pilot study. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 17(1), 16-23. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from PsycINFO.
Erin,
DeleteThis is a very interesting topic! I wondered if children who were diagnosed with IDD could fully comprehend everything that they had experienced as well as individuals who were not diagnosed with IDD but experienced some form of child abuse and developed PTSD as well? Also, children who were diagnosed with both PTSD and IDD do they end up experiencing the same level of psychological distress as adults as individuals who have PTSD but not an IDD?
Hi Erin, I found your post very interesting. It would make sense that PTSD and IDD could have a significant comorbidity after discussing in class today about how the rate of abuse is high among those with IDD. I feel as though PTSD could be made even more painful in a person with IDD, if they had an extreme cognitive deficit and could not make sense of why they were feeling a certain way.
DeleteHey Erin,
DeleteThis was a good question to raise, and not really something I thought about until we talked about it in class Tuesday. Few people, like myself, think about people with IDD as ones to fall feat to maltreatment. So studying what affect this later had on them PTSD wise is a great question to raise. Great job.
Erin-
DeleteGreat thought! I would have thought IDD would affect the way PTSD is seen or formed. I am surprised that it does not. I hope more studies like this are conducted, because I am very intrigued. I would think that a more severe form of IDD would make changes in clinical assessments.
Overall, great post! Very interesting thought!
Erin,
DeleteThis was a really interesting question to pose. I like how you combined the ideas of intellectual disability and PTSD. I would think they would certainly need different means of clinical assessment. I thought it was interesting that the assessment does not require any modification. I also would like to see a study done with children with more severe IDD or even with a more severe version of PTSD.
Erin,
Deleteinteresting topic to come across! I would find that one with IDD would have more trouble in general communicating the symptoms of PSTD but would be likely to get the disorder if not more vulnerable since they to more disorders. I would want to know which symptoms were more commonly found among the children with IDD and those without. I found your post insightful and would also like to know more about severe cases as well.
This chapter really strikes a chord for me personally due to the fact that I was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by my biological father. So while reading this chapter a lot of it was quite familiar, and resonated with experiences I have had. A question that came across my mind while reading this was, are individuals who were victims of child maltreatment currently experiencing psychological problems as adults?
ReplyDeleteIn the study that I found, a group of 210 college freshmen were given a questionnaire regarding any child maltreatment they may have experienced, along with questions about peer bullying, and the level of psychological distress they are experiencing to this day. It was found that individuals who were bullied had higher levels of physical trauma from their parents and experienced more sexual assaults than individuals who were not bullied. Results also found that individuals who were bullied and experienced abused reported having higher levels of psychological distress as an adult as opposed to individuals who were bullied but experienced no abuse, abused but experienced no bullying, or experienced neither bullying or abuse.
This shows just how lasting of an impact something like this can leave, I strongly believe if individuals had obtained helped at a very young age the level of psychological distress that they experience as adults would have been abysmal if not nonexistent.
Duncan, R.D. 1999. Maltreatment by Parents and Peers: The Relationship between Child Abuse, Bully Victimization, and Psychological Distress. Child Maltreatment, 4(1), 45-55.
Mariah,
DeleteThank you for sharing your story- it was brave and inspiring! This topic in class is the most interesting to me by far. I am not surprised at the results in the study, as I have seen such results in personal experiences with family, friends, and in some of the organizations I am involved with on campus that deal with assault/abuse. I agree with your statement that society needs to realize the lasting impact of abuse and that we can work towards decreasing such of a lasting impact.
Mariah,
DeleteI respect you for having the courage to share your story. You did an excellent job of relating your personal experiences with our discussion topic. You're right, if individuals who experience any form of maltreatment are provided with the aid that they need, it would make an incredibly positive impact on many lives. Reading your post reminded me of the study I discussed in my blog post. That study showed how effective positive parenting programs were in preventing child maltreatment. Whether we as a society are working to prevent child maltreatment or working to aid those already effected by it, I feel it is important that proactive steps be taken against something so damaging. Thank you for sharing.
Mariah, as everyone else has also stated, thank you for feeling comfortable enough to speak of your own experiences to help relate the question to what we are learning, and show how it does affect people. I agree with Morgan, I am not surprised by the results of this study due to the fact that it's true when people say words hurt, but actions hurt worse. These things do stay with you and unfortunately our brains like to keep the bad more than the good. Thanks again for sharing.
DeleteMariah,
DeleteThank you for sharing your experience with us. It is sometimes hard for us to remember that the prevalency numbers we learn about in class for these disorders and maltreatment cases are actual people. This chapter strikes a chord with me as well, as I have a close friend who was sexually abused as a child by one of her relatives. She opened up to me about her struggles and how it has affected her life daily. Since I have seen the effects of child maltreatment withing my friend, the results of your study do not surprise me, either. I also agree with your statement that if children who have been mistreated are exposed to therapy or intervention at a young age are more likely to have a positive prognosis compared to those who go unreported or untreated. Thank you again for sharing with us. I admire the courage that must have taken for you to open up to us about this traumatic experience.
Hi Mariah, your post was really inspiring. I completely agree that if we could identify kids who experienced trauma earlier so we could get them help earlier, it would relieve a lot of distress in later adulthood that could affect relationships. I hope that teachers and educators experience some training in looking for the effects of abuse on their students to help get them help.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter has been the most interesting for me to read. Abuse (psychological, physical, emotional, and even sexual) is an area I have always been passionate to study and what had lead me to become so interested in laws after years of studying/learning. Moving on, during the reading I became interested in learning about disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED)- possible outcome of social neglect. While looking at the symptoms, I asked myself, could this be found in children who have been adopted, as adopted children may be exposed to social neglect?
ReplyDeleteThe article I found stated that 20% of adopted children experience disinhibited social engagement disorder. DSED was assessed over four times during the first two years of adopted children and non-adopted children. Results found that at age of 5 was when most of these children met the diagnostic for DSED. Adopted children had higher DSED levels and steeper increase rate compared to the non-adopted children. It is completely understandable about adopted children having these greater risk of DSED, but I was shocked at the amount and how early of an onset. I hope therapies and treatments can help prevent such disorders in adopted children.
Lawler, J. M., Koss, K. J., Doyle, C. M., & Gunnar, M. R. (2016). The course of early disinhibited social engagement among post‐institutionalized adopted children. Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry, 57(10), 1126-1134. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12606
Morgan,
DeleteThis post was very interesting to read! I like how you looked at adoption and how it interacts with DSED in children because I did not think about that topic. I was surprised that DSED was so different and elevated in adopted children, and I wonder if that heightened difference is due to stress from foster care and everything that comes with it or if it is more likely due to the severity of their abuse. This post was intriguing, and I am very interested in looking deeper into this topic. Great job!
Erin Cameron
Morgan, I like the perspective that you brought to this. I didn't think to consider neglect in children who are adopted. I know many people who are adopted and have children that are adopted so I found this particularly interesting. I unfortunately are not surprised by the numbers. I know from personal experience that some of my friends that are adopted that they feel neglected even as an older adult. I hope that therapies can help these children as well.
DeleteGood Post!
DeleteIt's a sad topic and I agree that more research is needed to develop better therapies and treatments. I would have guessed that adopted kids would be at more of a risk for a disorder like DSED. I was shocked like you said that the age of onset was at only 5 years old. I was also curious if the rates of DSED increase more with in the ages of older adopted kids?
This interesting because DSED is a disorder I really do not know much about. Your narrowing down on adopted children is a very unique and specific topic, which always makes for interesting research. I think this data was so discouraging. I really would not expect the percentage to be that high. I agree with you that the early onset is also shocking and rather unfortunate. This is a situation where I would like to see this study with twins where we can then look deeper into the emotional aspects of the disorder in similar gene.
DeleteMorgan,
DeleteI found your post extremely interesting. I wonder if this study would also hold true for children who are in foster care as well. I think they might also suffer from DSED since foster homes are not considered stable environments.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDuring chapter twelve, in the diagnostic criteria mentions experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event. Then the book goes on to mention first responders and that the police come into contact of exposure through details of child abuse. My brother previously had the job of being a first responder in ambulances for three years. Living with him, he never really expressed any symptoms of PTSD but this could be due to a multitude of factors. He started first responding older, does not have childhood victimization, and could be environment could have parts to play. I wanted to know a little bit more about the likelihood of PTSD in first responders and the certain types of exposure that makes them more susceptible to PTSD.
ReplyDeleteThere is a study that was done in 2013 about first responders and police that responded to hurricane Katrina in 2005. The study concentrated on childhood victimization and if this cause affected the participants of the study. Childhood victimization, in this study, is trauma exposure before the age of 18. Races could not be defined in the study because this would compromise the identity of some of the workers since the majority were white (90.2%). One conclusion of theirs was, “…findings suggest that early physical victimization is not uncommon among police officers and firefighters, and that it is associated with worse mental health outcomes after serving as a first-responder in major natural disaster”. Early childhood abuse experienced by the participants was just one factor in the mental health outcomes after responding to the hurricane. One piece of information that I got from the study is that experienced trauma in childhood, such as physical abuse or threats, could lead to vulnerability of psychopathology in adulthood. The study wanted to highlight that,” it might be unique to first-responders to Hurricane Katrina and similar large-scale disasters”, possibly concluding that this was a unique finding within the participants. PTSD symptoms were higher in the participants that self-reported childhood victimization. With significance data in this study, the area of psychopathology in adulthood with maltreatment in childhood in, regards to PTSD, should further be looked into.
Komarovskaya, I., Brown, A. D., Galatzer-Levy, I. R., Madan, A., Henn-Haase, C., Teater, J., & ... Chemtob, C. M. (2014). Early physical victimization is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among Mississippi police and firefighter first responders to Hurricane Katrina. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy, 6(1), 92-96. doi:10.1037/a0031600
Hey Chris,
DeleteSeriously great question! It never even crossed my mind that first responders have the potential to get PTSD from their experiences.
Based on your research findings I wonder if people who have experienced childhood trauma are more motivated to work in a field that they can prevent such occurrences in some way (i.e police officers, first responders.) I also agree with you in that more studies should be looked into because I know PTSD is big in soldiers coming home from war, but I don't think people realize other professions can accumulate experiences that may be cause PTSD later.
Child maltreatment of any kind can have negative effects on a child and the family members involved. However, despite these negative effects, child maltreatment and abuse is still present in our society. There are several different programs that are available to the families who have experienced child maltreatment, and serve the purpose of working to prevent any future instances of child maltreatment. I wanted to know: how effective are these programs in reducing occurrences of child maltreatment and child abuse cases?
ReplyDeleteOne study done by Altafim and Linhares in 2015 reviewed different child maltreatment prevention programs on their levels of effectiveness. Sixteen different programs were reviewed in this study, all of which were structured interventions and designed to work with groups of parents to improve their parental practices. More specifically, the programs reviewed in this study aimed to reduce violence and other forms of maltreatment by promoting and teaching positive parenting practices. According to the study, the programs that were evaluated mainly focused on helping parents gain a better understanding of child development, learn effective parenting skills, promoting the use of non-violent parenting approaches, and creating a harmonious relationship between parent and child. It is important to note that these programs did not directly address violence and maltreatment towards children, but rather focused on the positive and beneficial ways a parent could approach their child. The results showed that these programs and their tactics were proven effective towards the prevention of child maltreatment. In fact, the study recommended that programs such as the ones in this study be used universally. This is because the programs were able to give parents the tools they needed to better understand their children, as well as parent them in a more beneficial and healthy way. When parents are given the knowledge to handle their children in a positive manner, they are less likely to resort to forms of maltreatment.
Altafim, Elisa R.P., and Maria B.M. Linhares. "Universal Violence and Child Maltreatment Prevention Programs for Parents: A Systematic Review." Psychosocial Intervention 25 (2015): 27-38. Web
Hi Lacy,
DeleteI enjoyed your post! I think it is very beneficial and smart that these studies focused on helping the parents better understand their children and improve the parent-child relationship. I think otherwise if they focused on the violence and maltreatment the parents may have felt threatened/offended which could make them less open to the prevention program.
Hi Lacy,
DeleteGood job on your post. I think that overall this study reveals that it is better for parents to be aware of what can be considered an abusive behavior towards children. I feel like this training could be an eye opener for many people since they may not know about a certain thing that they considered 'it's not abusive' towards their children. It also makes parents more aware to see if other parents are mistreating their children. I always say that education makes people more aware of issues that they may not even know of, so programs like this are always beneficial for anyone.
Overall good post.
Reading this chapter on child maltreatment really made me sad and mad because I cannot imagine what these children have gone through. I want to work with people with PTSD when I graduate so I was very interested in reading that part of the chapter. I wanted to know if different forms of abuse would cause different side effects or if they would all result in some sort of PTSD.
ReplyDeleteI found a study done by Peggy T Ackerman, Joseph E.O Newtona, W.Brian McPhersona, Jerry G Jonesa and Roscoe A Dykman. They did a study called "Prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric diagnoses in three groups of abused children (sexual, physical, and both)" in which they compared PTSD and other comorbid diagnosis in the three different groups of abused kids. In this study, they found that children who have been physically and sexually abused were more likely to have a high risk of psychiatric problems. They also stated that the just sexually abused group was less disturbed than the other two groups. This study also found that PTSD was usually comorbid with other disorders. Throughout their research they also found that boys externalize more often while girl internalize and that children abused by males had more psychiatric problems than children abused by females.
Overall it was a very interesting study but a very sad topic to have to do research on.
Ackerman, Peggy T., Joseph E. O. Newtona, W. Brian McPhersona, Jerry G. Jonesa, and Roscoe A. Dykman. "Prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Other Psychiatric Diagnoses in Three Groups of Abused Children (sexual, Physical, and Both)." ChildAbuse and Neglect 22.8 (1998): 759-74. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
Hey, Desiree,
DeleteThis fits in well with what I know about the diathesis-stress model--mainly, that more stress makes your original propensity to develop psychopathology less important. Further, that kind of PTSD symptoms--internalizing v. externalizing fits with what we were talking about with ADHD and other disorders. I'm a little curious about the biological vs. environmental determinants of that behavior.
Hello Desiree,
DeleteI found your post very interesting. I think that the finding on children being abused by males were more likely to have psychiatric problems was a good finding. I really thought that children labeled with sexual abuse were going to have higher psychiatric problems compared to the physically abused children. That itself, made me think of the children's ability to interpret the situation they were in and maybe perhaps they didn't know of what was going on when the sexual abuse started. Overall, it was an interesting finding this research did in determining the psychiatric problems in these children.
While reading the chapter on child maltreatment, I wondered how many children later act on self-injury towards themselves due to growing up abused and continuing the pattern on them. According to Cornell's Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery, up to 79% of individuals that self-harm report some form of physical or sexual abuse in their past. The link that is possibly connecting maltreatment and self-injury is thought to be a way to compensate for abnormalities in development that were not formed correctly due to the inability to adapt while being abused.
ReplyDeleteI thought about this question because I have a close friend of mine that was abused while growing up, and later self-harmed. I also dealt with mental health issues growing up and I wanted to see if there was a stronger correlation to the maltreatment or just general mental health issues with no maltreatment background. It was interesting to see the facts and how much it is impacted by things such as abuse.
Fleming, M., & Aronson, L. (n.d.). The relationship between non-suicidal self-injury and child maltreatmen. Retrieved October 26, 2016, from http://www.selfinjury.bctr.cornell.edu/perch/resources/the-relationship-between-child-maltreatment-and-non-suicidal-self-injuryfinal.pdf
Good Post!
Deleteits alarming that almost 80% of kids will later self harm themselves do to maltreatment. I think this is a good topic that needs more research. It could help alot of abused kids later in life, who are resorting to self harm. I don't know alot about this topic, but im curious if the self harm is a coping mechanism?
Shawn, yes for many people it is used as a coping mechanism. The article stated 3 reasons for turning to self-harm; Regulatory, Representational, and Reactive as all overlapping and interacting.
DeleteHaley,
DeleteI wondering if the connection of maltreatment through these children's life and later self-harm could be some type of behaviors conditioning response, more specifically within physical abuse. As the child is growing up in these abusive conditions, they are conditioned through their parents abuse. For example, say the child spills a glass of milk, and the parents physically abuses them every time they spill, could the child be conditioned to learn that this kind of accidental behavior is wrong and will result in physical harm, and later on in life they associate these accidental behaviors with self-abuse. Besides the question of behavioral response, I found the blog alarming interesting anf significant enough to be further questioned.
Haley,
DeleteThis was a very interesting post because I too have a friend who suffered from abuse as a child and would harm herself when she was feeling down. I do think there is a strong connection to maltreatment and selfharm especially as a way to cope with what happened to them. It is very sad but it does happen.
Overall a very good post!
Great post! I strongly feel there is a connection between self harm and child maltreatment. I know it was the case for myself and others I know who went through horrible things. It's extremely sad to think about. Great post and question!
DeleteChild maltreatment is a hard topic to discuss because I feel like it’s such a sensitive topic not only to me but others as well. I was originally wanting to do research on neglect but while looking I stumbled upon a very interesting article to me. This article was about parents who fabricated illnesses for their children. I originally assumed that would mean the parent created this illness as a way of abuse for their child but reading lead me in a different direction. In this study they looked at how pediatricians also can unfortunately go along with the parents just so they can get more money. In this study they looked at parents who fabricated symptoms and sometimes had their children undergo unnecessary surgery. About half of the cases that were reported had to deal with suffocating or poisoning. Then in addition, 92% of the children had to be in in-patient care due to the abuse.
ReplyDeleteThe results in a follow up study done with the same children showed that none of the children had a genuine disease. Another unfortunate statistic is that one fourth of the children were disabled due to their fabricated diseases. The benefit of this study was that doctors and nurses became more aware of the issue and are more cautious of children that come in for treatment frequently. Although this is a less common form of child maltreatment, it is unfortunate and shocking to what extent people put their children through.
Davis, P. (2009). Fabricated or induced illness in children: The pediatrician's role. Paediatrics and Child Health, 19(11), 498-508. doi:10.1016/j.paed.2009.06.001
Leeann,
DeleteThis is an interesting study. I know that doctors follow a strict code of ethics, so it's awful to think of them as doing unnecessary surgeries. Isn't the first code of ethics, do no harm? I find it extremely sad that there are some children that are now hindered from the surgeries. However, I'm glad this study was conducted to bring awareness to the topic.
Hey, Leann,
DeleteIs the study in question Munchhausen's by proxy? That's a really fascinating disorder (disturbing and awful, too, of course). And it's crazy what people (especially moms) will do to fabricate symptoms. I'm curious about the developmental pathways that might encourage a mother to lash out like that, if it's linked to child temperament or mroe about lack of social support?
Leeann,
DeleteThis is so interesting! I heave heard of maybe one or two of these cases in the media. It is not as common or just not as commonly reported! I also saw that most of the parents tend to have Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which is where a parent (usually mother) does extreme things in order to fake symptoms of an illness in their child. They also tend to move or switch doctors often until they find a doctor who will treat their "symptoms." It is very sad that the study found children who suffer from this maltreatment are often left disabled. I hope in the future there is more precaution and research done by the medical professionals that deal with these situations. This would help these cases get reported to authorities and shed more light on situations like this!
When reading this CH I was curious how a child with IDD would interact socially with other peers and if they would develop any normal friendships. I found some pretty cool research that was done on kids with pretty severe autism, IDD, Cerebral Palsy, and Down Syndrome. The interesting part with these adolescents was that some of them were non speaking. So to measure if they were making friendships they used video data.
ReplyDeleteTo measure friendship, they measured characteristics involving friendships, mainly proximity and similarity. What they found was that kids did make friendships with people in the same classroom that were the same age. However they didn't make any friendships in extracurricular activities. In the video evidence they did find that IDD kids would make friends with non disabled kids. When they interviewed kids with IDD they found that most of the kids were able to make satisfactory relationships.
This was encouraging research, that showed that even severely disabled or non speaking adolescents could develop somewhat normal satisfactory friendships. Although it is certainly much more difficult for these kids to have a lot of friends. With that being said this study didn't have that many participants and more research needs to be done.
Moore-Dean, A., Renwick, R., & Schormans, A. F. (2016). Friendship Characteristics of Children with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities: Qualitative Evidence from Video Data. Journal On Developmental Disabilities, 22(1), 39-51.
After reading chapter 12, I was intrigued by Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED). After learning more about this disorder I couldn't help but wonder if adopted children suffer from this disorder. Do to the fact that once they are in the foster care system that can have multiple caregivers, who may not always treat them the way a human deserves to be treated.
ReplyDeleteI found a study done by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, in Helsinki, Finland. The study examined the associations between RAD, DSED, and later psychological problems with international adoptees. The study was made up of adopted children (591 boys and 768 girls) ages 6-15 from an ongoing Finnish adoption study. Data was gathered through questionnaires given to the adoptive parents as well as the children that were adopted who were over the age of 9. From the questionnaires researches found that these children suffered not only from symptoms of RAD and DSED, but also were at a heightened rick for emotional problems, behavioral problems, and even ADHD.
I wasn't shocked at all by this study, because it makes completely sense as to why these children would show symptoms from these disorders, or even the disorders themselves. The only thing that I can't get over is that this study was done in Finland, I can only imagine how much worse it would be in the United States.
Elovainio, M., Raaska, H., Sinkkonen, J., Mäkipää, S., & Lapinleimu, H. (2015). Associations between attachment‐related symptoms and later psychological problems among international adoptees: Results from the FinAdo study. Scandinavian Journal Of Psychology, 56(1), 53-61. doi:10.1111/sjop.12174
DSED probably happens a lot with children in adoption agencies. The disorder may even be common just when children are starting school too. People have different interpretations of what it means to be treated like a human based on experience so i would want to know your take on that a little more for children. I like the fact that you brought up the limitations of the study in Finland and made the reader think about what that would look like in the U.S. I would like to know more about how likely children with DSED are to be emotionally abused since this is the least likely form of abuse i would think they would be vulnerable to. You have a great post!
DeleteThis chapter really hits home for me. As I was reading some of the comments above one of them stood out to me because I've had a similar experience as her. When I was younger I was physically, and sexually abused by my step-dad at the time. Whenever I finally came out in the open about it (years later) it was all about me and how I was dealing with it and if I was okay. I hated the attention because I hated talking about it. I had always wondered though how my mom took it when she found out and how it affected her. So my question is how do the parents or at least one of the parents if the other is the one who did the sexual abuse handle the situation of their child being a victim to any type of abuse?
ReplyDeleteThe article I found stated that 27% to 56% of mothers are able to support their child post-disclosure. It says that the mothers are the most important part of the child having a successful intervention. If a mother is there and being supportive and showing that they can help and be their for their child it lowers the risk of the child being removed from the home and prevents re-victimization. The article also says that the child can also benefit if the mother also receives support. In a recent longitudinal study it found that some mothers suffered more emotional distress at the "initial interview" following the disclosure that can't be fully explained by pathology.
The rest of the article discussed an examination between foster parents and biological parents. The results showed that biological parents suffered more distress than those that were non-relative caregivers.
Lipton, M. (1997). The effect of the primary caretaker's distress on the sexually abused child: A comparison of biological and foster parents. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 14(2), 115-127. doi:10.1023/A:1024505216535
Heather,
DeleteI think you bring up an interesting point that may not normally be considered in most of these cases. We tend to focus on the direct victim of these cases for obvious reasons, but it seems that we rarely focus on how these events can effect other close family members and relationships with people close to the victim. I find it a bit alarming that your study stated that mothers are the, "most important part of the child having a successful intervention," however only 27 to 56 percent of mothers successfully support their child post-maltreatment.
I found your post extremely interesting, and I wanted to thank you for being vulnerable enough to open up about your past. I admire your courage in being able to talk about this. I am truly sorry that you had to endure that kind of pain and suffering.
While reading through the causes of maltreatment, it was more then evident that the parent, family member, and/or guardians were the front of it. The fact that another being in relation to the child is to blame for the maltreatment is fact that I wish to be false. This fact opened a vault of question. The most concerning question was to know if this abusive relationship is a repetitive cycle. Do abused children become abused parents? Fortunately there is a journal article entitled this very same question. The basics of this article were a literature review of case history studies, agency records, clinical interviews and self-report questions. Each literature review was cross-examined for history of abuse, and current abuse. While each source varied in the definitions of history of abuse, current abuse, and data interpretation, the finding answered the question. The article found the results not to be significant but dependent. It was suggested that one in every three individuals of physical abuse, sexual abuse or extreme neglect would continue this maltreatment as a parent to their child. However, this cyclical abuse contains many factors and these factors have many pathways. The pathway between abuse and child rearing is neither direct nor inevitable.
ReplyDeleteKaufman, J., & Zigler, E. (1986) Do abused children become abusive parents? American journal of orthopsychiatry, 57 (2), 186-192. doi: http://dx.doi.org.lib-e2.lib.ttu.edu/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1987.tb03528.x
That's a really good question! It would seem to make sense that if a child was abused in any way that they might carry that over to their adult lives. 1 in every 3 children to carry it on to treating their child that way seems like a lot to me as well! Good post!
DeleteComing from a military family, I know what it's like for a parent to have to take long deployments and many during my childhood. I remember my stress levels were through the roof when my dad was gone for long periods of time and without many means of communication. After reading more about trauma-and stressor related disorders I became intrigued by the thought of how PTSD in soldiers may affect their children.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard to find enough evidence to answer my question, but I did find a study thats objective was to examine the behavioral and emotional adjustment problems in children aged 6-12 of active duty Army or Marine Corps parents that were currently deployed or recently returning from Afghanistan or Iraq. I found this research interesting because it also showed some of the impacts of current deployment on children in which it mentions something that reminded me of the chapter- ongoing risks include child maltreatment related to deployments. It also talks about how the mental health of the civilian parent (usually mom) is highly influential in determining child adjustment. The study's final model for child outcomes was based on the analysis of linear regression models. Some of the final results indicated that Active Duty PTSD symptoms predicted child depression and internalizing & externalizing behaviors.
I was quite surprised with how much the actual At-Home civilian has more of an effect on the child, but with that said I can understand because the pressures and stress is put on whoever is raising the kids.
Lester, P., Peterson, K., Reeves, J., Knauss, L., Glover, D., Mogil, C., Beardslee, W. (2010). The Long War and Parental Combat Deployment: Effects on Military Children and At-Home Spouses. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(4), 310-320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.01.003
While reading about child maltreatment, I wondered if it could cause disorders or make the disorders worse in children that had already been diagnosed. I was also curious if child maltreatment had more correlation with a specific disorder or if it was a wide array of various disorders.
ReplyDeleteI found a study by Éthier, Lemelin, and Lacharité that looked at the level of chronically maltreated children and their behavioral and emotional problems over time. They studied 32 victims of chronic maltreatment and 14 victims of transitory maltreatment. They found out that children that were chronically maltreated were more prone to emotional issues; such as anxiety and depression. They also showed more aggression and withdrawal than those in the transitory category. They concluded that chronic levels of maltreatment need to be assessed before deciding how much maltreatment had impacted the child. It also stated that chronically maltreated children are more at risk to developing a clinical condition.
I was not very surprised by their findings, because the more severe a child is maltreated, the more severe the consequences and impact it has on the child. However, the study did not say if any of the children had been previously diagnosed with a disorder. The only two disorders that were specifically associated as an affect of the maltreatment were anxiety and depression. These were some of the disorders I had anticipated to be correlated with maltreatment, but they did not say any mood or conduct disorder was specifically linked.
Éthier, L. S., Lemelin, J., & Lacharité, C. (2004). A longitudinal study of the effects of chronic maltreatment on children's behavioral and emotional problems. Child Abuse & Neglect, 28(12), 1265-1278. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2004.07.006
While reading the section on maltreatment, it came to mind that we discussed in class that children with disabilities are often victims of abuse. We talked about why and mentioned that the abuse could be under reported, the abuser could find them as easy targets, these children are hard to deal with causing a lack in patience, as well as a few other circumstances.
ReplyDeleteThis made me question: Are children with disabilities more likely to be victims of maltreatment than those who do not have disabilities?
In the article I found called "Maltreatment among children with disabilities", it is stated that the majority of child maltreatment cases are happening in dysfunction families and those living in difficult circumstances. Among these, children with developmental disabilities seem to represent a larger amount. In the late 1970s, research mentioned in this article stated that the number of disabled children abused out ranked those without disabilities by about 3.5 times as much as the general population.
Theses results are unfortunately spot on with what I had predicted, it does not surprise me that children with disabilities receive more abuse that those without. As if the lives of these children aren't already hard, they also have to live day to day facing abuse.
Goldson, E. (2001, April). Maltreatment Among Children with Disabilities. Infants & Young Children: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Early Childhood Intervention (INFANTS YOUNG CHILD), 13(4), 44-54. doi:10.1037/e500792015-224
Kristen,
DeleteGreat Post! I was not very surprised by these findings. However, learning that children with disabilities are victims of abuse 3.5 times more than those without disabilities was an eye opener. This is a sad reality, therefore, more should be done in order to easily help those with disabilities and how to recognize maltreatment and abuse.