Browsing by Subject "Maltreatment"
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Item Open Access The Impact of State Early Childhood Programs and Child Protective Services Policies on Resilience Following Experiences of Child Maltreatment(2013) McCourt, SandraIn the largest known investigation to date of the prevalence of resilience following experiences of child maltreatment, a statewide, longitudinal sample of maltreated children was used to measure the prevalence of resilience, defined in this study as consistent competence over time and across multiple domains of functioning within the academic setting. In response to the relative paucity of resilience research using large samples, multiple domains of functioning, and longitudinal data, the current study measured resilience in a sample of over 150,000 children who were reported to child protective services agencies for suspected maltreatment. Functioning was measured within three distinct domains (academic performance, special education, and behavioral functioning) across a time period of up to 7 years. A sample of over 450,000 children with no known maltreatment history was used to compare relative rates of consistent competence over time and examine any differential effects on competence across groups. Approximately 18% of maltreated children exhibited consistently competent functioning in all domains across all available years of data, whereas approximately 35% of nonmaltreated children demonstrated consistent competence. County-level introduction of differential response policies investigating children's reported maltreatment was found to promote higher rates of competent functioning. In addition, relative levels of government expenditures in children's counties on two popular statewide early childhood programs (Smart Start and More At Four) were found to predict competent functioning for maltreated and nonmaltreated children alike. These findings suggest that child welfare policies aimed at identifying and assisting high-risk families in need of services and support and community programs targeted at improving children's early development and school readiness hold promise for improving adaptive functioning among maltreated children at high risk for experiencing difficulties in the school environment.
Item Open Access Voxelwise Mapping of Neuronal Structural Connectivity in Adolescents(2012) Smith, Alex KennethLongitudinal studies have demonstrated that the white matter in adolescents is still developing well into young adulthood. However, these studies of the corpus callosum were anatomical and DTI studies involving manual region of interest measures, which have not proven to be as in depth of an analysis as the one proposed in this study. In addition, there have been relatively few studies that have looked at the effects of childhood maltreatment on brain structure.
The methodology presented here develops a technique that will perform an extensive analysis between a well characterized group of healthy adolescents with no trauma history and a group of maltreated adolescents with PTSD symptoms. It employs a voxelwise analysis to determine significant groups of voxels using cluster enhancement and permutation correction algorithms. It then uses these significant clusters to perform an in-depth ROI analysis to determine the correlations present in these clusters with several physical and neuropsychological measures. This technique has produced evidence that validates earlier studies showing that better executive function and task ability indicate stronger structural organization within the white matter of the brain. In addition, it has provided substantial evidence that maltreated children complete myelination within the corpus callosum of the brain earlier than healthy children, indicating that chronic stress during childhood may be associated with stress-induced premature ageing.