Citation

Ghanem N. Child Abuse Negl. 2021; 120: e105217.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105217

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A robust literature-base on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) provides strong evidence on the relationships between social adversity in childhood and the health and well-being of individuals across the lifespan. One form of social adversity, exposure to violence in childhood, is not only harmful to a child's health and well-being, but detrimental to their performance in school. Poor performance in school may affect educational attainment later in life and hinder a child's upward social mobility. We focus on the impact of violence-related ACEs on school success factors to add new evidence on how violence in childhood affects a child's educational progress.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of violence-related ACEs on school success factors, including grade repetition, school absence, and school-home contact. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS: This study uses secondary data analysis of a nationally representative survey, the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), to study a sample of non-institutionalized children aged 6-17 in the US (n = 35,122).

METHODS: We employed binary logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression using 95% confidence intervals to analyze the effect of violence in childhood on three school success factors, controlling for socio-demographic and health status characteristics.

RESULTS: We found that violence in childhood increases the likelihood of grade repetition (OR = 1.47, 95% CI, 1.12-1.92), school-home contact (OR = 2.20, 95% CI, 1.86-2.60), and school absence greater than one week (OR=1.4, 95%CI,1.08-2.00; OR=1.86, 95%CI, 1.36-2.60), controlling for socio-demographic and health status characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: Violence in childhood has a statistically significant negative impact on each of the school success factors included in this study.

Language: en

Keywords

Education; Violence; Child health; Childhood; School success