A Follow-up Study of Traumatized Children

This study compared 17 abused children with 17 children who had been in accidents, matched for age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status, eight years after all had been studied as infants. Each traumatized group was also compared with a matched untraumatized group with no known history of abuse or infantile accident. The majority of all children were lower-class. Hypotheses were that the abused children would fall below the nonabused in health history and physical development, intellectual functioning, language, and self-concept; and that the abused children would score higher in impulsivity and aggression. Clinical assessments revealed few group differences. The surprising finding was the extent of various problems across the entire sample Seventy percent of the children had speech problems; over 50% showed some degree of disturbance; and 39% were achieving poorly in school. However, these disabilities were distributed randomly among abuse, accident, and comparison children. Most of the children appeared sad and fearful of personal attack by adults or other children. Many mothers' reports indicated that the families, whether abuse, accident, or comparison, experienced constant violence, both environmental and personal. It was concluded that the effects on child development of lower-class membership may be as powerful as abuse.