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Background: Alcohol use among young adults is highly prevalent. Individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment are particularly vulnerable to alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Few studies have examined family protective factors, such as parental warmth, that may mitigate the effects of childhood maltreatment on alcohol-related problems., Objective: The current study seeks to examine the extent to which parental warmth reduces the effect of childhood exposure to maltreatment on alcohol-related problems in young adulthood., Participants and Setting: Participants were young adults (N = 337; mean age = 21.7), who were recruited from an urban community and completed in-person interviews assessing childhood maltreatment, parental warmth, and alcohol-related problems., Methods: Multiple hierarchical linear regression models were used to examine whether maternal and paternal warmth reduced the impact of childhood exposure to maltreatment on alcohol-related problems in young adulthood. Common risk factors for alcohol-related problems, including psychological symptoms and peer and parental alcohol use, were also entered into the models., Results: We found a significant moderating effect of paternal warmth on the associations between childhood emotional abuse and alcohol-related problems (β= -0.29, p < .05). Specifically, the association between emotional abuse and alcohol-related problems was weaker among individuals with higher levels of paternal warmth. Moderating effects of maternal warmth on the maltreatment-problematic alcohol use relation were not supported., Conclusion: The results of this research suggest that parental warmth may not only relate to fewer alcohol-related problems among offspring, but may also modify the associations between childhood emotional abuse and alcohol-related problems during young adulthood., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Research using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) have consistently used the scale developed from the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act (DFSCA) to examine school engagement. Although the DFSCA is widely used, no study has examined the factor structure to determine if the scale is best used as a summative score of all items or as a three-factor variable distinguishing behavioral, emotional, and cognitive school engagement., Objective: The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the hypothesized factor structure of the DFSCA scale by testing models previously supported in the literature., Methods: Using NSCAW-I data, we performed confirmatory factor analysis in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework., Participant: The study sample included 2429 children and adolescents who were between 6 and 15 years of age who had recently been investigated by child protective services due to a maltreatment report., Results: Results indicated that school engagement is a multidimensional concept measuring behavioral, emotional, and cognitive-behavioral dimensions. This model has not been used in studies using NSCAW data, to date. These findings highlight the importance of exploring and understanding the factor structure of instruments before using an instrument in studies., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The primary aim of the current study was to examine the longitudinal effects of ongoing physical abuse on the co-development of externalizing behavior problems and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms among child welfare-involved adolescents. Using three waves of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, we performed unconditional and conditional parallel process latent growth curve modeling in a structural equation modeling framework. The study sample included 491 adolescents who were between 11 and 13 years of age at baseline. Higher levels of initial PTS symptoms were associated with higher levels of externalizing behavior problems, but the rate of change in PTS symptoms were not significantly associated with the rate of change in externalizing behavior problems over time. Although physical abuse was concurrently associated with both externalizing behavior problems and PTS symptoms at all assessment points, there were no lagged effects. Additionally, we found that physical abuse indirectly affects subsequent development of externalizing behavior problems and PTS symptoms through ongoing physical abuse. Findings highlight the comorbidity of externalizing behaviors and PTS symptoms among early adolescents in the child welfare system, underlining the importance of screening for and addressing these problems simultaneously. Findings also point to the need for continued assessment of and protection from ongoing physical abuse during adolescence., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Decades of research have consistently shown a link between foster care and low rates of high school completion. Despite the overwhelming knowledge surrounding this association, it remains unclear whether the low rates of high school completion are due to placement in foster care or the maltreatment and other contextual factors that foster care youth have experienced. This study examined the extent to which (a) maltreatment type and (b) foster care placement were associated with the educational attainment of 337 maltreated adolescents. Logistic regression analyses were conducted using two waves of data and the ACR dataset of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). After controlling for academic risk factors related to the adolescents (age, race, and gender), their family (household poverty and parental education), and their environment (community environment), neither maltreatment type nor foster care placement status were associated with subsequent high school completion. Overall, only 58% of the maltreated adolescents reported completing their education. That is about 15% less than the national average at the time data were collected for this study. Results, overall, suggest a need for educational supports and interventions for youth who experience maltreatment during their adolescent years, regardless of maltreatment type and foster care placement., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study examined how a range of physical punishment measures, ranging from mild corporal punishment to physical abuse, are associated with cognitive performance, school engagement, and peer isolation over a 3- year span among 658 children initially observed between the ages of 8 and 14. Physical punishment was captured in three groups: mild corporal punishment, harsh corporal punishment, and physical abuse, and both caregiver- and child-reported punishment measures were considered. After accounting for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, only Ninitial exposure to physical abuse was significantly associated with declines in cognitive performance. However, all forms of physical punishment were associated with declines in school engagement, and harsh corporal punishment was associated with increased peer isolation. Our findings were relatively consistent regardless of whether physical punishment was reported by the child or caregiver. Overall, our findings suggest that the prevention of physical abuse may enhance children's cognitive performance, but that alone may not be sufficient to ensure children are engaged and well-adjusted in school., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study examined (a) the extent of heterogeneity in the patterns of developmental trajectories of language development and academic functioning in children who have experienced maltreatment, (b) how maltreatment type (i.e., neglect or physical abuse) and timing of abuse explained variation in developmental trajectories, and (c) the extent to which individual protective factors (i.e., preschool attendance, prosocial skills), relationship protective factors (i.e., parental warmth, absence of past-year depressive episode, cognitive/verbal responsiveness) and community protective factors (i.e., neighborhood safety) promoted the development of resilient language/academic functioning trajectories. Longitudinal data analyses were conducted using cohort sequential Growth Mixture Model (CS-GMM) with a United States national representative sample of children reported to Child Protective Services (n=1,776). Five distinct developmental trajectories from birth to age 10 were identified including two resilient groups. Children who were neglected during infancy/toddlerhood or physically abused during preschool age were more likely to be in the poorer language/academic functioning groups (decreasing/recovery/decreasing and high decreasing) than the resilient high stable group. Child prosocial skills, caregiver warmth, and caregiver cognitive stimulation significantly predicted membership in the two resilient academic functioning groups (low increasing and high stable), after controlling for demographics and child physical abuse and neglect. Results suggest that it is possible for a maltreated child to successfully achieve competent academic functioning, despite the early adversity, and identifies three possible avenues of intervention points. This study also makes a significant contribution to the field of child development research through the novel use of CS-GMM, which has implications for future longitudinal data collection methodology., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)