Background

The long-term health effects of physical child abuse are well documented in self-report, retrospective studies. However, there have been few longitudinal, multimethod studies on physiological responses to stress and the onset of chronic disease, thereby slowing the advancement of prevention and intervention programs.

Objectives

This study used survey data from an extended longitudinal study to examine prospective and retrospective associations between measures of physical child abuse and adult health in the 40s.

Participants and setting

Data are from an ongoing longitudinal study of the correlates and consequences of child maltreatment that began in the 1970s with a sample of 457 children.

Methods

Bivariate correlations and multiple regression models with covariates were used to assess associations between measures of physical child abuse and outcomes of self-reported health in adulthood.

Results

Physical child abuse, measured retrospectively, was moderately related to reports of overall health, as well as a number of adult health problems and conditions, such as back and chest pain, hypertension, and certain forms of cancer. Associations were also observed for lifetime alcohol problems and past-year doctor and emergency room visits. Fewer associations between prospective parent self-report measures of physical child abuse and adult health were identified, although child welfare (official record) reports performed similarly to retrospective measures.

Conclusions

This study adds important information on the long-term health effects of child physical abuse, as well as measurement differences in the prediction of adult health outcomes. Conclusions drawn from prospective and retrospective studies of abuse are at best inconsistent, and possibly incompatible.

中文翻译：

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虐待儿童的前瞻性和回顾性措施与自我报告的中年成人健康之间的关联

背景

身体虐待儿童的长期健康影响在自我报告的回顾性研究中得到了很好的证明。然而，很少有关于对压力的生理反应和慢性病发作的纵向、多方法研究，从而减缓了预防和干预计划的进展。

目标

这项研究使用来自一项扩展纵向研究的调查数据来检查 40 多岁儿童身体虐待措施与成人健康之间的前瞻性和回顾性关联。

参与者和设置

数据来自一项正在进行的纵向研究，该研究从 1970 年代开始，对 457 名儿童进行了样本虐待。

方法

双变量相关和协变量多元回归模型被用来评估身体虐待儿童的措施与成年后自我报告的健康结果之间的关联。

结果

回顾性地衡量儿童身体虐待与整体健康报告以及一些成人健康问题和状况（例如背部和胸部疼痛、高血压和某些形式的癌症）有一定的相关性。还观察了终生酒精问题与过去一年的医生和急诊室就诊的关联。尽管儿童福利（官方记录）报告与回顾性措施的表现相似，但未来父母自我报告的儿童身体虐待措施与成人健康之间的关联较少。

结论

这项研究增加了关于儿童身体虐待的长期健康影响的重要信息，以及预测成人健康结果的测量差异。从虐待的前瞻性和回顾性研究中得出的结论充其量是不一致的，并且可能是不相容的。