Resilience Among Maltreated Children: The Important Role of Peer Relationship

Background: As of 2017, it has been estimated that 7.5 million children were investigated for maltreatment in the U.S. Maltreated children may develop a range of adverse outcomes. A high proportion of them exhibit externalizing as well as internalizing symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems. Despite these negative outcomes, some children actually are able to persevere, and bounce back from traumatic experiences. In other words, they are resilient to these early childhood adversities. Recognizing the crucial role that resilience plays in the transition from childhood to adulthood, it’s important to explore the relationships between early mental health problems and later resilient outcomes among maltreated children and the mechanism shaping such relationships. Previous research has identified peer relationship as a factor that promotes the development of resilience. Additionally, research has shown an association between peer relationship and mental health problems among maltreated children. Therefore, it is reasonable to anticipate that peer relationship might facilitate the associations between mental health problems and resilience. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which peer relationship mitigate the associations between mental health issues and resilient outcomes among maltreated children.

Methods: This study used the three waves of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being II (NSCAW II), which focuses on the health outcomes of children who were abused and neglected. Children were included only if the following data were available: psychological symptoms (PTSD, depression, and behavioral problems) in Wave 1, peer relationship in Wave 2, and resilient outcomes (future expectancy and adaptive living skills) in Wave 3. The final sample consisted of 457 children. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to examine the direct pathways from psychological symptoms to resilient outcomes, as well as the indirect pathways through peer relationship.

Results: The structural equation model appeared to have a good overall fitness with the data (X² = .472, RMSEA = .000, CFI = 1.000, SRMR = .019). Results from SEM indicated that behavioral problems directly predicted adaptive living skills, also indirectly contributed to adaptive living skills through peer relationship. In contrast, depression was only indirectly associated with adaptive living skills through peer relationship. Peer relationship, in turn, both directly and indirectly predicted adaptive living skills, and such associations were mediated by future expectancy. However, as one of the most prevalent mental health problems among maltreated children, PTSD was neither directly nor indirectly associated with peer relationship and resilient outcomes.

Conclusions and Implications: This research explored the pathways from maltreated children’s mental health problems to their subsequent resilient outcomes. Specifically, depression and behavioral problems impacted children’s future expectancy and adaptive living skills. Based on these findings, intervention programs integrating mental health counseling with an emphasis on interpersonal relationship guidance should be advocated for children who have experienced abuse and neglect. Moreover, social work practitioners should assist maltreated children with developing a more positive future outlook, which may facilitate the development of more adaptive living skills. The results of this research should be cautiously treated because of limited sample size.