@article{ref1,
title="Child maltreatment and adult health in a national sample: Heterogeneous relational contexts, divergent effects?",
journal="Child abuse and neglect",
year="2014",
author="Schafer, Markus H. and Morton, Patricia M. and Ferraro, Kenneth F.",
volume="38",
number="3",
pages="395-406",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: This study considers the long-term health consequences of child maltreatment. Distinct from previous research, we examine the effects of maltreatment in the context of more general parental evaluations. METHOD: Analyses used retrospective and current data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study. RESULTS: A considerable proportion of middle- and older-age adults who experienced frequent maltreatment nevertheless evaluated the relationship with their offending parent as &quot;excellent&quot;, &quot;very good&quot;, or &quot;good&quot; (e.g., 47% for physical and emotional maltreatment by mothers). Maltreated respondents generally evaluated their maltreating parents less favorably than non-maltreating parents, but there was considerable variation in these recollected relationships. Adults who experienced child maltreatment reported a greater number of chronic medical conditions and physical symptoms and lower self-rated health, but effects were smaller when they had positive relationships with their parents than when one or more of the relationships was perceived as negative. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight a common and seemingly paradoxical pattern among MIDUS participants: the co-presence of harsh parental behavior and positive recollections of parental relationships during childhood. Moreover, these surprising patterns of retrospective interpretation predict very different experiences of adult health - health problems are most pronounced among maltreatment in cases where the respondent had a generally negative relationship with one or more of his or her parents.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0145-2134",
doi="10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.08.003",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.08.003"
}