title: Concordance between adolescent reports of childhood abuse and Child Protective Service determinations in an at-risk sample of young adolescents.
abstract: This study examines the concordance between adolescent reports of abuse and abuse determinations from Child Protective Service (CPS) agencies. It also compares the utility of adolescent reports of abuse, relative to CPS determinations in predicting adolescent psychological adjustment. The sample included 350 early adolescents, ages 12 to 13 years, who were initially identified prior to age 2 years as being at elevated risk of maltreatment. An Audio-Computer Assisted Self Interview (A-CASI) was used to assess lifetime experiences of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. The A-CASI interview elicited prevalence rates of abuse 4 to 6 times higher than those found in CPS records. However, 20 of 45 adolescents with CPS determinations of abuse failed to report abuse during the study interview. Adolescent psychological adjustment was more strongly associated with self-reports than with CPS determinations. The implications of these findings are discussed for validity of adolescent self-reports of childhood abuse and for the ongoing debate about disclosure patterns among victims of child sexual abuse.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Everson
authors.forename: Jamie B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Jon M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hussey
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: English
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Litrownik
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dubowitz
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dawes Knight
authors.forename: Desmond K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Runyan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002651:Child Advocacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019058:Community Networks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D030881:Disclosure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment