Retrospectively self-reported age of childhood abuse onset in a United States nationally representative sample
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Injury Epidemiology
Abstract
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
Description
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Article
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Keywords
child abuse, sexual abuse, trauma, physical abuse
Citation
Cammack, A. L., & Hogue, C. J. (2017). Retrospectively self-reported age of childhood abuse onset in a United States nationally representative sample. Injury Epidemiology, 4, 7. http://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-017-0103-1