Adult Outcomes in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect

The present project is supported by funding from the SDSU Division of Research and Innovation

Difficult experiences in childhood and adolescence, particularly child maltreatment, create an increased risk for long-term negative outcomes that extend into adulthood and even parenthood. However, many children and adolescents who experience adversity grow up to become successful adults with safe and effective parenting behaviors, despite this increased risk. This project aims to understand the factors that help individuals who have experienced childhood adversity and maltreatment become well-adjusted adults and parents, and to explore what happens “underneath the skin” when they interact with their children.

Purpose

Child maltreatment, which includes experiences of neglect and physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, can disrupt children’s development across multiple domains, including educational, occupational, and health outcomes. The effects of child maltreatment can be severe and enduring, often persisting into adolescence, adulthood, and beyond. For some individuals who have experienced of maltreatment, these childhood experiences impact their adult functioning as well as their attitudes and behaviors as parents and their interactions with their children. At the same time, many child maltreatment survivors are able to become nurturing and effective parents, often breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse. Very few studies have been able to prospectively follow survivors of child maltreatment into adulthood to understand the factors that impact their parenting practices, and even fewer studies have examined psychophysiological processes that account for the associations between childhood experiences and parenting behaviors. 

Goals

(1) examine the long-term impacts of childhood maltreatment, with a particular focus on parenting

(2) identify protective factors associated with adaptive functioning and effective parenting

(3) explore moment-to-moment psychophysiological stress processes in the context of stressful parent-child interactions

As part of this project, our team is reconnecting with adults who participated in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) as children, adolescents, and/or young adults. LONGSCAN is a multi-site consortium of studies investigating the causes and consequences of child maltreatment. As part of the original LONGSCAN protocol, children and families were identified, recruited, and interviewed every two years from when the children were 4 years old until they were 18 years old. These participants are now in early-to-mid 30s, and a large proportion have become parents. Our research team is following up with these individuals in their homes to collect a wide range of survey, observational, and psychophysiological data. We are collecting data about the health and well-being of all particiapnts, whether or not they are parents. We are also interested in observing parents of 2-7-year-olds interact with their children while they engage in an increasingly difficult cooperative task. This task will help us understand how these parents and children operate solve challenges together, and how parents’ early experiences as children may be related to their problem solving strategies with their children. Additionally, we will be observing parents’ and children’s psychophysiological indicators (e.g., heart rate variability, skin conductance) of biological stress response systems are related to past experiences and problem solving during parent-child interactions. 

Links for more information

To learn more about the detailed information about LONGSCAN study, please visit:  http://longscan.research.unc.edu/

To learn more about LONGSCAN data and publications, please visit: https://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov/datasets/dataset-details.cfm?ID=170