Maltreatment and the school-aged child: school performance consequences

Studies of the impact of abuse or neglect on children have focused largely on maltreated infants, toddlers, or preschool children. In this study a total of 139 school-age and adolescent children participated in a multi-model, multi-source assessment; 22 of the children had been physically abused, 47 had been neglected, and the remainder served as comparison subjects. Parent and child interviews, teacher ratings, and data from school records were used to comprehensively assess children's school performance; social and emotional development in school, at home, in the community, and with peers; and adaptive behavior in areas such as motor skills, personal care skills, and community orientation. With the effects of socioeconomic status covaried out, results showed that the abused children displayed pervasive and severe academic and socioemotional problems. Neglected children differed little from children who were neither abused nor neglected on measures of socioemotional development, but they displayed severe academic delays. Both groups of maltreated children showed unexpected strengths on measures of adaptive behavior.