Success in Education may Reduce the Impact of Childhood Abuse

Physical-emotional and sexual abuse are associated with a higher likelihood of chronic offending relative to stable low-level offending. Education variables, including high educational engagement and good academic performance, predict a higher likelihood of low-level offending relative to desistence

Performing well at school and achieving good grades may reduce the impact of childhood abuse, research at the University of Michigan and University of Washington finds.

This new ongoing study is one of the few in the nation to follow the same individuals over several decades to learn about how child maltreatment, described as physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as neglect, impacts development and how some are resilient.

Child Behavior Disorders - Signs Types
Behavioral problems occur in children for various reasons including stress, abuse or inconsistent parenting. They must not be mistaken for misbehavior which children are prone to from time to time.

‘According to this study, doing well at school can reduce the negative emotional and behavioral outcomes among child abuse victims.’

"Child abuse is a risk factor for later antisocial behavior," said study co-author Todd Herrenkohl, the Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Child and Family at the U-M School of Social Work. "Education and academic achievement can lessen the risk of crime for all youth, including those who have been abused (encountered stress and adversity)."

In addition to crime/antisocial behavior, the researchers also investigated effects on physical and mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, intergenerational transmission of violence, and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Previous studies about child maltreatment have not distinguished youth and adult chronic offenders from non-offenders and those who perpetrate antisocial behavior in adolescence only, who are called desisters.

Bullying in Children - Tips For Teachers and Parents
Bullying is a harmful action (physical or psychological) carried out by a child against another. It is usually repetitive and unprovoked.

"Given that offending in adolescence can persist into adulthood if left unaddressed, it is important to identify and act on factors that predispose individuals to ongoing patterns of antisocial behavior," said Hyunzee Jung, the study's lead author and a U-W researcher.

Data involved 356 people from childhood (ages 18 months to 6 years) in 1976-1977, school-age (8 years) in 1980-1982, adolescent (18 years) in 1990-1992 and adulthood (36 years) in 2010.

Vaccination for Children
Vaccines are biological products that impart immunity to the recipient. Vaccines may be live attenuated, killed or toxoids.

Parent reports, self-reports, which included crime/antisocial behavior, and parent-child interactions measured various types of abuse and neglect, and responses also factored educational experiences and criminal behavior against others or property.

The abuse led to people more likely to commit crimes, but this was not the case for those who had been neglected in their early years, the study shows.

Tips for Parents While Administering Medicines to Children
Administering medications to children can be challenging for parents. Parents need to use strategies or creative ideas to convince the child to take medicine.

Successful school experiences kept teens from both committing crimes and having antisocial behaviors. But for youths suspended in grades 7 to 9, the chronic offending habits and antisocial behaviors continued later in life, the researchers said.

Herrenkohl said the primary prevention of child abuse is a critical first step to reducing antisocial behavior at the transition from adolescence into adulthood.

"Strategies focused on helping school professionals become aware of the impacts of child abuse and neglect are critical to building supportive environments that promote resilience and lessen risk for antisocial behavior," he said.

The study is published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Source-Eurekalert