The Consequences of Early Childhood Abuse

In the article “The long-term impact of childhood abuse on internalizing disorders among older adults” Child abuse is a major life stressor that has important consequences for several indices of mental health in adults (Sachs-Ericsson, Verona, Joiner, & Preacher, 2006). The connection between the childhood abuse and adulthood consequences gives insight of just how severe effects it as on you later in life. In the survey a measurement of childhood abuse experiences including emotional, physical and sexual were recorded. The percipients were also analyzed for any low levels of self-esteem issues. After three years the same participants were re-interviewed. They were now diagnosed using the DSM-IV. The diagnoses included internalizing disorders like anxiety and mood disorders. Within the report it includes demographics of abused and non-abused within the older adults. Next, a series of hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed with the internalizing diag- nostic count as the dependent measure and the childhood abuse scale inserted into the model as a predictor, following the inclusion of the covariates. (Sachs-Ericsson, N., Gayman, M. D., Kendall-Tackett, K 2010).

Gender, age, education and family-of-origin variables were included in the covariates. Among the sample at baseline (N¼1460), 7.2% of participants reported a history of any childhood abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional). Specifically, 2.6% reported being physically abused as a child, 2.4 percent reported sexual abuse, and 3.9% reported emotional abuse. (Sachs-Ericsson, N., Gayman, M. D., Kendall-Tackett, K 2010) A standardized interaction term including abuse and self-esteem was then entered in the model to determine if abuse had a greater effect on mental health at higher levels of self-esteem compared to the effects at lower levels of self-esteem. (Sachs-Ericsson, N., Gayman, M. D., Kendall-Tackett, K 2010). Lastly to make the conclusion if a DSM-IV disorder resulted in the response to childhood abuse the regression analyses were repeated with each specific DSM as the dependent measure. As a result those who did experience childhood abuse had a larger result of 1-year internalizing disorders at the follow up than those who did not experience childhood abuse. It was also shown that abuse did not correlate with self-esteem.

The article titled “Gender Differences in Long-Term Health Consequences of Physical Abuse of Children”. The Predictor Variable: Physical Abuse in Childhood and the Dependent Variables: Health Problems in Adulthood. The sample consisted of ½ men and ½ women. The age, employment, education level and race were all controlled.