Abstract
Objectives: Research has shown that children who experience abuse and neglect are at much higher risk of experiencing negative outcomes such as physical and mental health problems, social skill deficits, and poor quality of life. The goal of this paper was to examine the relationship between polyvictimization and risk of harm to self and others, taking into account both age and sex differences. Methods: A total of 8980 participants (4156 with maltreatment history) were recruited from over 50 mental health facilities in Ontario, Canada. Group comparisons were completed to examine types of trauma experienced, and risk of harm to self and others. Results: Among our sample, we found that 29% of children and youth had experienced multiple types of interpersonal trauma. We also found that while female children and youth who had experienced trauma were at greater risk of harm to themselves, males were at greater risk of harming others. Further, our results highlight that children and youth who had experienced multiple types of maltreatment, regardless of age or sex, were at the greatest risk of harm to self and others. Implications: Findings from this research highlight that interpersonal trauma is multifaceted and add to existing evidence that there is a cumulative relationship between experiencing multiple types of maltreatment and risk in relation to harming oneself or others. Our findings underscore the importance of a background assessment that takes into account all forms of maltreatment in order to properly understand risk of harm and inform intervention.
Highlights
Child maltreatment has been defined as child abuse and includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence (World Health Organization, 2016)
This study investigated polyvictimization and risk of harm to self or others as well as potential moderating effects of sex with a large sample of clinically-referred children
After controlling for sex and age, polyvictimization was associated with risk of suicide and self-harm as well as risk of injury to others
Summary
Child maltreatment has been defined as child abuse and includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence (World Health Organization, 2016). Children who have experienced maltreatment are at much higher risk of experiencing mental health problems, substance use (Baiden et al, 2014), social skill deficits, and other life stressors compared to non-maltreated children (El-Sheikh et al, 2008; Raviv et al, 2010; Robinson et al, 2009; Smith et al, 2014; Taussig & Culhane 2010). As part of a systematic review of the literature examining the risk of future maltreatment, Hindley et al (2006) found that, compared to those children and youth (hereafter referred to as children) who had not previously experienced maltreatment, children who had experienced abuse were six times more likely to experience recurrent maltreatment. NSSI predicts future suicidal thoughts and behaviour (Hamza et al, 2012; Wilkinson et al, 2011)
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