Gender-specific Trajectories of Maltreatment, School Engagement, and Delinquency: The Protective Role of School Engagement

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the link between child maltreatment and delinquency has been well-established, relatively few studies have examined gender differences in the protective role of school factors that attenuates delinquency for adolescents who reported child maltreatment. This study aimed to examine gender-specific trajectories of child maltreatment, school engagement, and delinquency with a framework of life course perspectives. It also examined the protective role of school engagement trajectory on delinquency over time by gender. A total of 348 adolescents who reported maltreatment experiences in a nationally representative sample from the Korea Welfare Panel study with three waves was examined using latent growth models. The results revealed that males experienced neglect, physical and emotional abuse significantly more than females at baseline, but this significance disappeared as females’ experience increased with age. Being male decreased initial level of school engagement at baseline, which also increased initial level of delinquency, but being male increased the growth rate of school engagement over time, which also decreased the growth rate of delinquency. Females who experienced maltreatment rapidly dropped school engagement without increasing delinquency. Sexual abuse, neglect, and multiple types of maltreatment experiences also fit the model. Implication of the findings for females and males were different and discussed.