Citation

Benedini KM, Fagan AA, Gibson CL. Child Abuse Negl. 2016; 59: 111-121.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, 3219 Turlington Hall, P. O. Box 117330, Gainesville, FL 32611-7330, United States, United States. Electronic address: clgibson@ufl.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2016.08.003

PMID

27568065

Abstract

Child maltreatment has been demonstrated to have many short- and long-term harmful consequences for victims, but whether or not child abuse is associated with an increased risk of peer victimization during adolescence is unclear. This study analyzed prospective data from 831 children and parents participating in the Longitudinal Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) to investigate the relationships between child physical and sexual abuse and adolescent victimization by peers, as well as the potential for gender to moderate these relationships.

RESULTS from ordinal logit regression models indicated that children who were physically abused prior to age 12, based on official reports, parent reports, and child reports, had a greater risk of experiencing more intimidation and physical assault by peers at age 16. Having a history of sexual abuse predicted more physical assault but not intimidation. There was no evidence that gender moderated these relationships; in all cases, the relationship between abuse and revictimization was similar for boys and girls. The findings emphasize the need to provide victims of abuse with assistance to help prevent a cycle of victimization.

Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en