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Child maltreatment is mediating long-term consequences of household dysfunction in a population representative sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2019

Vera Clemens*
Affiliation:
aDepartment for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89073Ulm, Germany bDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Section Clinical Neurobiology, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - University Medicine Berlin, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203Berlin, Germany
Oliver Berthold
Affiliation:
aDepartment for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89073Ulm, Germany
Andreas Witt
Affiliation:
aDepartment for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89073Ulm, Germany
Cedric Sachser
Affiliation:
aDepartment for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89073Ulm, Germany
Elmar Brähler
Affiliation:
cDepartment for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Str. 8, 55131, Mainz, Germany
Paul L. Plener
Affiliation:
aDepartment for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89073Ulm, Germany dDepartment for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Währingergürtel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria
Bernhard Strauß
Affiliation:
eInstitute of Psychosocial Medicine and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Stoystraße 3, 07740, Jena, Germany
Jörg M. Fegert
Affiliation:
cDepartment for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Str. 8, 55131, Mainz, Germany
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89073, Ulm, Germany. E-mail addresses: vera.clemens@uni-ulm.de (V. Clemens), o.berthold@drk-kliniken-berlin.de (O. Berthold), andreas.witt@uniklinik-ulm.de (A. Witt), cedric.sachser@uniklinik-ulm.de (C. Sachser), Elmar.Braehler@medizin.uni-leipzig.de (E. Brähler), paul.plener@meduniwien.ac.at (P.L. Plener), bernhard.strauss@med.uni-jena.de (B. Strauß), joerg.fegert@uniklinik-ulm.de (J.M. Fegert).

Abstract

Background:

Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) exhibit long-lasting consequences on later life and are considered as a major public health problem. ACEs can be divided into household dysfunctions, which affect the child indirectly, and direct maltreatment. As a high correlation between ACEs in general is known, we assessed the risk for child maltreatment associated with the occurrence of household dysfunctions. To provide a better understanding for the mechanisms leading to the deleterious sequelae of ACEs, we furthermore assessed whether the long-term consequences of household dysfunction are mediated by child maltreatment and thereby might be targeted by effective child protection programs.

Methods:

A representative sample of the German population above the age of 14 (N = 2531) was assessed in a cross-sectional observational population-based survey.

Results:

The data reveal that mental illness of a household member was associated with significantly increased risks for all child maltreatment subtypes (ORs 4.95–5.55), just as household substance abuse (ORs 5.32–6.98), violence against the mother (ORs 4.43–10.26), incarceration of a household member (ORs 6.11–14.93) and parental separation (OR 3.37–4.87). Child maltreatment partially mediated the association of household mental illness, substance abuse and parental separation with later depression, anxiety, life satisfaction and subjective general health status and completely mediated the associations of intimate partner violence (IPV) and incarceration of a household member with anxiety, depression and subjective health status in adulthood.

Conclusions:

ACEs linked to household dysfunction are associated with an increased risk for all subtypes of child maltreatment. The assessed widespread consequences of household dysfunction are mediated by child maltreatment. This underlines the role of prevention of child maltreatment in families with household dysfunction and implies child protection as a priority in any interventions.

Information

Type
Original article
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2019
Figure 0

Fig 1. Overview of adverse childhood experiences. Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) can be divided into household dysfunctions, which affect the child in an indirect way, and child maltreatment.

Figure 1

Table 1 Sample Characteristics.

Figure 2

Table 2 Prevalence and risk of child maltreatment in dependence of household mental illness, substance abuse and violence against the mother.

Figure 3

Fig 2. Association between intimate partner violence (IPV) against the (step-) mother, child maltreatment and depression (A), anxiety (B), life satisfaction (C) and general health status (D), assessed via mediation analysis. Direct association is presented as c, indirect association as c’. b = beta coefficient; *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.

Figure 4

Fig 3. Association between household substance misuse, child maltreatment and depression (A), anxiety (B), life satisfaction (C) and general health status (D), assessed via mediation analysis. Direct association is presented as c, indirect association as c’. b = beta coefficient; *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.

Figure 5

Fig 4. Association between household mental illness, child maltreatment and depression (A), anxiety (B), life satisfaction (C) and general health status (D), assessed via mediation analysis. Direct association is presented as c, indirect association as c’. b = beta coefficient; *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.

Figure 6

Fig 5. Association between incarceration of a household member, child maltreatment and depression (A), anxiety (B), life satisfaction (C) and general health status (D), assessed via mediation analysis. Direct association is presented as c, indirect association as c’. b = beta coefficient; *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.

Figure 7

Fig 6. Association between parental separation, child maltreatment and depression (A), anxiety (B), life satisfaction (C) and general health status (D), assessed via mediation analysis. Direct association is presented as c, indirect association as c’. b = beta coefficient; *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.

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