Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Many studies have demonstrated that child maltreatment is associated with deleterious consequences. Most of this research has focused on the proximal effects of child maltreatment, due partly to the logistic and financial challenges inherent in longitudinal investigations. Among the small minority of studies that have investigated distal effects, few have prospectively examined how maltreatment impacts adult well-being across multiple domains.

Considerable evidence also suggests that children and youth placed in out-of-home care fare worse than their peers on an array of outcomes. However, most investigations have compared children in out-of-home care to children in the general population or similar samples of non-maltreated children. Such research may reveal more about the impacts of maltreatment than foster and kinship care. To accurately estimate effects associated with out-of-home placement it is preferable to compare maltreated children placed in foster and kinship settings with maltreated children who were not removed from the home.

This study addresses the aforementioned gaps in the literature by answering the following questions: (1) Do maltreated children differ significantly from non-maltreated children in early adulthood on a range of outcomes? (2) Do maltreated children placed in out-of-home care differ significantly in early adulthood from maltreated children who were not removed from their homes?

Data were drawn from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a prospective investigation of a single cohort of 1,539 disadvantaged, minority children. Official child abuse and neglect records from Cook County, IL were gathered from administrative data maintained at the Chapin Hall Center for Children. Outcome data were collected from multiple administrative sources and from an adult survey conducted when participants were 22-24 years old. Multivariate probit regression analyses were conducted in STATA for dichotomous outcomes across five domains: educational attainment (e.g. high school graduation; high school completion), public assistance (any public aid; any TANF), crime (incarceration; arrest conviction), early childbearing (parent < age 18), and behavioral health (substance use/misuse; regular tobacco use).

Results indicated that maltreatment was significantly associated with reduced rates of high school completion (p=.001) and graduation (p<.001), and increased rates of public aid receipt (p <.001), incarceration (p<.001), arrest conviction (p<.001), and substance use/misuse (p=.019). Maltreatment was not associated with childbearing or TANF receipt among female participants or regular tobacco use for the full sample. Among maltreated children, outcomes were generally comparable for those placed outside the home and those who remained with their birth families. Both groups had significantly lower rates of educational attainment and higher rates of public aid receipt and criminal offending than non-maltreated participants. Tests revealed no significant differences between the two groups.

The results indicate that maltreatment is a significant risk factor for many poor outcomes in young adulthood. While maltreated children placed in out-of-home care fared worse in early adulthood than their non-maltreated peers, they did not differ from maltreated children who were never removed from home. The findings have implications for child welfare services and recommend increased investment in maltreatment prevention initiatives.