Examining the Cycle: Maltreatment of Children Among Young Adults with a History of Foster Care and Child Maltreatment

Purpose: Young adults who have experienced childhood maltreatment and spent time in foster care frequently struggle in young adulthood.  They are at increased risk for poor health and mental health, homelessness, low education attainment, and economic hardship, among other challenges. Young adults often face these challenges while parenting their own children.

This study examines the relationship between economic hardship and neglectful and abusive parenting among young adults with histories of foster care and maltreatment. The Family Stress Model informs this research with a framework for understanding the pathways through which economic strain influences adult well-being, parenting and child outcomes (Conger, et al., 1991; Elder, Conger, Foster, & Ardelt, 1992). The study has two specific aims: 1) document economic hardship among young adults that were in foster care and those who experienced childhood maltreatment but no out-of-home placement; and 2) examine the extent to which economic hardship predicts neglectful and abusive parenting behaviors and social services involvement among the foster care and maltreated groups.

Methods: Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) Wave III (respondents aged 18-26 years) and Wave IV (respondents 24-32 years old).  Analysis focuses on two groups (1) youth that have been in foster care or group treatment home (n=171) and (2) youth reporting repeated instances of childhood maltreatment but no time in an out-of-home placement (n=605).  Young adults self-report childhood experiences of maltreatment (supervisory neglect, physical neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse), and their own neglectful and abusive behaviors as parents. Ordinary least square (OLS) and linear probability models (LPM) estimate economic hardship and parental maltreatment in separate and pooled models. Propensity score matching and alternate specifications of foster care and childhood maltreatment are utilized as a robustness checks.

Results: In the foster group 48.0% report at least one indicator of economic hardship compared to 40.1% in the maltreated group (31.3% in the full Add Health sample).  Among those with children, rates of abusive and neglectful parenting are 24.4% for the foster group and 34.8% for the maltreated group; rates of social services involvement are 13.7% for foster and 5.6% for maltreated. Preliminary regression results suggest no differences in abusive and neglectful parenting between the foster and maltreated groups; however, the maltreated group is marginally less likely to report social services involvement [-0.08, p-value 0.077]. Economic hardship is not a significant predictor of abusive and neglectful parenting. An increase in economic hardship is associated with an increase in the likelihood of social services involvement, among the foster group [0.14, p-value 0.047], and the maltreated group [0.09, p-value 0.020).

Implications: Results illustrate the vulnerability of maltreated young adults and their children. The positive association between economic hardship and social services involvement, but null result for maltreatment behaviors, could suggest hardship contributes to system surveillance. The intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment is a complex issue; additional research is needed to understand which parents are at greatest risk to maltreat their children and how to identify and intervene with these families.