Retrospectively self-reported age of childhood abuse onset in a United States nationally representative sample.

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Alison L. Cammack, Emory University; Carol Hogue, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-12-01
• Publisher: SpringerOpen
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s). 2017
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40621-017-0103-1
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Injury Epidemiology
• ISSN: 2197-1714
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 7
• End Page: 7
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was supported by grants T32HD052460 and T03MC07651.; This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations.
• Keywords: Child maltreatment; Trauma; Physical abuse; Child abuse; Sexual abuse; Sexual assault
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Epidemiology

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Child abuse is common and several studies have linked it to health outcomes throughout the lifecourse. Recent information about timing of abuse reported retrospectively is underrepresented in the literature, despite its importance to informing target populations for primary prevention of child abuse and studying effects of child abuse. This study uses data from Wave IV (2008-2009) of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to Adult Health (N = 14,776) to describe distributions of retrospectively self-reported age of onset of childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse perpetrated by parents/adult caregivers and sexual abuse perpetrated by other individuals. Information on childhood abuse history was collected when participants were between 24 and 32 years old. FINDINGS: Parental/adult caregiver perpetrated abuse frequently started in early childhood, particularly sexual abuse. Non-parental/adult caregiver sexual abuse motivated by physical force also started early in boys (median age = 7.21 years (95% CI: 5.92, 9.05)). Earlier onset of some types of abuse was associated with male sex, not being raised by both biological parents, and low childhood household income. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies should further examine timing of childhood abuse onset and include diverse measures of abuse, including those derived from longitudinal studies and validated reports. If these results are replicated, they suggest that abuse, particularly sexual abuse perpetrated by parents/adult caregivers, often starts in early childhood, and preventive interventions should be designed to protect younger children.