Child abuse & neglect
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Child abuse & neglect · Oct 2020
Adverse childhood experiences and psychological well-being in a rural sample of Chinese young adults.
International interest in adverse childhood experiences (ACE) is on the rise. In China, recent research has explored the effects of ACEs on health-related outcomes, but little is known about how ACEs impact the psychological functioning of rural Chinese youth as they make transition to adulthood. ⋯ ACEs were prevalent among rural Chinese young adults and had deleterious effects on their psychological well-being. Further work is needed to address ACEs by developing culturally appropriate assessment practices, interventions, and policy responses.
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Child abuse & neglect · Jun 2020
Adverse Childhood Experience histories in foster parents: Connections to foster children's emotional and behavioral difficulties.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known risk factors for negative health and behavioral outcomes, including caregiving. Foster parents are key to supporting foster children, yet there is limited research on their ACE history and how it might relate to their foster children's behavior. ⋯ Foster parents may have a higher ACE exposure than the general population. Foster parents' ACEs were associated with foster children's challenging behaviors. Future research should investigate the mechanism of this connection.
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Abusive head injuries in infants may be occult but clinically or forensically important. Data conflict regarding yield of neuroimaging in detecting occult head injuries in infants evaluated for physical abuse, with prior studies identifying yields of 4.3-37.3 %. ⋯ Occult head injuries were less frequent than previously reported in some studies, but were identified in 1 in 10 infants <6 months. Clinicians should have a low threshold to obtain neuroimaging in young infants with concern for abuse.
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Child abuse & neglect · Jan 2020
Linking childhood emotional abuse and adult depressive symptoms: The role of mentalizing incapacity.
Accumulated evidence suggests that childhood emotional abuse is particularly related to adulthood depression. However, this connection demands further explanation regarding potential intermediate factors. ⋯ This study provided preliminary evidence for hypermentalizing and hypomentalizing as mechanisms whereby early emotional abuse can lead to later depression. A normal to high level of mentalizing capacity might serve as a protective factor to suspend the pathway from childhood maltreatment to subsequent depression and become a promising target in psychological treatments. As cross-sectional data does not allow conclusions to be drawn on causal relationships, longitudinal data in a more representative sample is needed to capture relevant context and further examine our findings.
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Child abuse & neglect · Nov 2019
Lifetime risk of child protection system involvement in South Australia for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children, 1986-2017 using linked administrative data.
Child protection services exist to reduce potential harms from child maltreatment. Many jurisdictions produce annual data on child protection system (CPS) involvement, leaving a gap in knowledge of lifetime involvement. ⋯ Data linkage is an essential tool for understanding life course involvement with the CPS and describing trends not observable from annual snapshots. Such information is critical for burden of disease estimates, informing policy and monitoring CPS performance.