UNIVERSITY PARK — When children suffer abuse or neglect, the effects can follow them through adolescence and well into adulthood. But do different types of child maltreatment, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse or neglect, result in symptoms that show up at different ages?
In a new study, researchers at Penn State discovered that children who experienced physical abuse were more likely to binge drink as young adults, whereas children who experienced supervisory neglect were more likely to binge drink in adolescence.
The team also found that the majority of children who experienced multiple types of maltreatment were both depressed and engaged in binge drinking throughout adolescence and into young adulthood. The results could inform intervention programs that aim to protect mental health and promote healthy behaviors among survivors of childhood maltreatment.
Benjamin Bayly, assistant professor in family studies, child and youth development in the College of Agricultural Sciences, along with Yuen Wai Hung, senior consultant at Salient Advisory, a healthcare consulting firm, and Daniel Cooper, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, examined how different types of childhood maltreatment were associated with depressive symptoms and heavy episodic drinking specifically between the ages of 14 and 30.
The researchers focused on these two outcomes because they are prevalent throughout adolescence and young adulthood.
“We often see a peak in heavy episodic drinking when people transition to early adulthood — around the ages of 19 to 23,” Bayly said. “Depressive symptoms tend to peak in adolescence and remain high in young adulthood. We focused on these outcomes because they have been shown to relate to childhood maltreatment as well. We wanted to understand if survivors of different types of childhood maltreatment exhibit these symptoms at different ages and thus need intervention and support at different times — and that’s what we found.”
Using a national longitudinal adolescent health study of more than 16,000 participants that began in 1994 and encompasses five waves of survey data, the researchers focused on four types of child maltreatment: physical abuse, sexual abuse, supervisory neglect and care neglect. They narrowed their study to two specific symptoms: depressive symptoms and heavy episodic drinking — or binge drinking — defined as four or more drinks in a sitting for women and five or more drinks for men.
The researchers found statistically significant associations between certain types of maltreatment and the ages when survey participants exhibited symptoms. For example, they found that the risk for depression for children who experienced sexual abuse increased steadily between the ages of 17 and 22, leveled off slightly, then peaked at age 30.
Examining heavy alcohol use among survey participants, Bayly and his colleagues found that children who experienced physical abuse were more likely to engage in heavy episodic drinking when they were young adults, whereas people who experienced supervisory neglect as children were more likely to binge drink in adolescence, beginning around age 15.
“This is where appropriate timing is so important,” Bayly said. “For survivors of physical abuse in childhood, a key time to intervene and provide prevention support around heavy episodic drinking is when they are 18 or before they enter college. But someone who has experienced supervisory neglect is going to need those prevention interventions much earlier.”
The researchers, who recently published their findings in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, had a second goal: to determine how experiencing multiple types of childhood maltreatments were associated with those same outcomes between the ages of 14 and 30.
“This accumulation piece is a critical component of our research,” Bayly said. “We looked at how many of the four types of maltreatment each participant experienced, and then at how the number of types of maltreatment was associated with drinking and depressive symptoms across ages, and we found interesting associations.”
For example, the researchers found that those who experienced between zero and three types of maltreatment exhibited comparable levels of both binge drinking and depressive symptoms over the ages of 14-30, whereas those who experienced all four types — or an accumulation of maltreatment — had a much higher rate of both depressive symptoms and heavy episodic drinking.
“We found that upwards of 80% of participants who experienced all four types of maltreatment were depressed and engaged in binge drinking throughout adolescence and into young adulthood,” Bayly said. “For other participants, who experienced fewer than four types of maltreatment, the rate was around 20%. That’s a stark contrast.”
Bayly emphasizes the long-term implications of the research. “Depression in adolescence has been linked to depression in young adulthood as well as later in life,” he said. “And unhealthy drinking in adolescence and young adulthood has long-term health implications, so this is a long-term issue. Our research shows that if we can prevent an accumulation of maltreatment, that can pay dividends throughout someone’s life. And for those who have already experienced this accumulation, we now can see the critical ages when they need support.”
He added that it’s important to identify these specific ages and periods when support and intervention are critical.
“It’s a question of how we translate this research into actual practice so it can positively impact people’s lives,” he said. “We have a responsibility to support survivors of childhood maltreatment and do all we can to set them up early in life to have success and long-term healthy behaviors.”
The National Institute on Drug Abuse supported this research.
