Child abuse and neglect, social support, and psychopathology in adulthood: A prospective investigation☆
Section snippets
Research design and sample
The data used here are from a larger research project based on a cohort design study in which abused and/or neglected children were matched with non-abused, non-neglected children and followed prospectively into middle adulthood. Because of the matching procedure, the subjects are assumed to differ only on the risk factor: that is, having experienced childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect. Since it is not possible to randomly assign subjects to groups, the assumption of equivalency
Do abused and neglected children have lower levels of social support in adulthood compared to matched controls?
Table 1 presents the results of analyses comparing the abuse/neglect group overall to controls, and separately for males and females, on levels of social support. As hypothesized, individuals with documented histories of childhood maltreatment reported significantly lower levels of total social support and specific types of social support. Although the same general pattern was found for males and females, there were two significant group (abuse/neglect versus control) by sex interactions:
Discussion
This is the first prospective longitudinal study to systematically assess whether individuals with documented histories of child abuse and neglect have lower levels of social support and the extent to which social support plays a role in their anxiety, depression, and drug use. Thirty years after experiencing these childhood adversities, our research shows that maltreated individuals in general report significantly lower levels of social support than matched controls and that social support
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This research was supported in part by grants from NIMH (MH49467 and MH58386), NIJ (86-IJ-CX-0033 and 89-IJ-CX-0007), NICHD (HD40774), NIDA (DA17842 and DA10060), NIAAA (AA09238 and AA11108) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Points of view are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the United States Department of Justice or National Institutes of Health. We express sincere appreciation to Sally Czaja for statistical assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.