The Impact of Positive Peer Relationships, School Experiences, and Future Outlook on Behavior Scores for Abused and Neglected Youth

Background and Purpose: Much of the extant research concerning peer networks of children focuses on risk factors, such as peer rejection and victimization as related to subsequent delinquency, substance abuse, and deviant peer affiliation as young adults.  This research takes a strength-based approach to assess the predictive impact of self-reported accounts of positive peer friendships, school experiences, and future expectations on levels of problem behaviors, including an assessment of the interaction between positive experiences and maltreatment type.

Methods:  Analyses were conducted on a subset of 1,054 children (ages 11-17) from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II (NSCAW II) dataset, who had experienced physical abuse (25%), physical neglect (8%), and supervisory neglect (16%).  The subset of children (mean age = 13.72) is comprised of 45% boys; 38% White, 27% Black, 24% Hispanic and 10% other races. Factor analyses were employed to arrive at the predictor constructs: positive friendship (a = .89), positive school experiences (a= .77), and positive future expectation (a = .60).  Children’s behaviors (CBCL), a three-level ordinal scale (low, borderline, and clinical) were predicted using Generalized Ordered Logistic (gologit2) regression analyses, assessing main effects of the three constructs, as well as interactions between each type of abuse and each predictor construct.

Results: Findings indicate a main effect of positive friendships (OR = .66, p< .01) for children suggesting positive friendship networks is a buffer for clinical levels of behavior problems.  Additionally, there is a main effect of children who experience supervisory neglect based on the models assessing positive friendships (OR = .51, p< .05) and positive school experiences (OR = .52, p< .05), in that these children are less likely to classify in the clinical range of behaviors compared to all other types of abuse. Physically neglected children (OR = .45, p = .06) in the normal range of behaviors are less likely to classify in the clinical range of behaviors than other types of abuse.  The interaction between physical abuse and positive friendships (OR = 1.28, p< .05) and the interaction between physical neglect and positive future expectations (OR = 1.33, p< .05) has a negative impact resulting in children more likely to classify in the group with clinical levels of poor behavior. Further, children of other races (compared to White, Black and Hispanic) (OR = 1.98, p< .05), children with higher levels of depression (OR = 1.04, p< .01) and those designated with a substance use disorder (OR = 2.31, p< .05) are more likely to display clinical levels of problem behaviors. 

Implications: These findings are useful for treatment approaches specifically suited for abused and neglected youths that focus on assessing and encouraging self- perceived accounts of positive friendship networks, experiences in school and future expectations for adulthood.  Results suggest particular attention be given to behavioral assessments of children identifying as other races than White, Black and Hispanic.  Types of abuse clearly have a differential impact on behaviors when consideration is given to the protective influences of positive networks, experiences, and future outlook.