Citation

Shenk CE, Noll JG, Peugh JL, Griffin AM, Bensman HE. J. Pediatr. Psychol. 2015; 41(1): 37-45.

Affiliation

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, Division of Child Abuse Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, and Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/jpepsy/jsv017

PMID

25797944

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:  To evaluate the impact of contamination, or the presence of child maltreatment in a comparison condition, when estimating the broad, longitudinal effects of child maltreatment on female health at the transition to adulthood.  METHODS:  The Female Adolescent Development Study (N = 514; age range: 14-19 years) used a prospective cohort design to examine the effects of substantiated child maltreatment on teenage births, obesity, major depression, and past-month cigarette use. Contamination was controlled via a multimethod strategy that used both adolescent self-report and Child Protective Services records to remove cases of child maltreatment from the comparison condition.  RESULTS:  Substantiated child maltreatment significantly predicted each outcome, relative risks = 1.47-2.95, 95% confidence intervals: 1.03-7.06, with increases in corresponding effect size magnitudes, only when contamination was controlled using the multimethod strategy.  CONCLUSIONS:  Contamination truncates risk estimates of child maltreatment and controlling it can strengthen overall conclusions about the effects of child maltreatment on female health.

Language: en