This is a follow-up study (Time 2) of young adults who were initially studied during their adolescence (Time 1) soon after they were documented as physically abused. The original (T1) study represents the first controlled study of the mental health of physically abused adolescents who were not referred for treatment. It was, and remains, unusual for its focus on adolescent abuse victims, inclusion of middle- class subjects, and comprehensive systematic investigation of adolescent psychiatric disorders and behavioral functioning. Subjects for the follow-up study will be drawn from the original (T1) study group of 99 adolescents who were confirmed as physically abused by the Departments of Social Services in the suburban New York counties of Nassau and Suffolk between 1989 and 1991, and 99 non- abused comparison subjects matched for community. Physical abuse has been associated with poor outcomes in multiple domains of adolescent and adult functioning. Therefore, subjects' young adult (T2) psycho-asocial functioning in the domains of Internalizing/Emotional Functioning and Interpersonal Functioning/Aggressive Behavior will be examined. Based on an ecological framework, Individual, Interpersonal, and Contextual variables measured in adolescence and hypothesized to have a role in determining resilient as well as poor outcomes will be examined. A model is offered that will examine the path from contextual risk factors to physical abuse and exposure to domestic, which influence young adult psycho-social outcome through adolescent individual and interpersonal mediating variables. Studies such as this will be important in deciding the timing and focus of preventive and rehabilitative interventions for physically abused youth, and for young adults who were physically abused as adolescents.
| Sunday, Suzanne; Labruna, Victor; Kaplan, Sandra et al. (2008) Physical abuse during adolescence: Gender differences in the adolescents'perceptions of family functioning and parenting. Child Abuse Negl 32:5-18 |
