[Mistreated and non-mistreated girls - childhood, partnership, maternity - a longitudinal study].
BACKGROUND
The aim of the study is to find out whether women maltreated in childhood were different health-wise, psychologically and socially from the women who were not maltreated and whether they were violent toward their own children.


METHODS
In the study sample of 3848 mothers-to-be included in the Brno part of the ELSPAC study, 48,3 % were maltreated in their youth, 51,7 % were not maltreated. The presented paper compares data provided in their questionnaires regarding these four periods: the period of time until the birth of their children, the period from 6 months till 18 months of age, period from 18 months till three years of age and last period from three till five years of age of their children. The acquired data characterize health, social and psychological situation of the women and their families. Girls from both compared groups came from families with similar socio-economical backgrounds and also their own families later in their lives were similar. However health of the maltreated girls parents was worse and their family relationships less stable with higher frequency of conflicts when compared to the situation of non-maltreated girls parents.


RESULTS
Similarly, the maltreated girls health and psychological condition was worse, their partners and children health was also worse, their social support was weaker, frustrations and stresses more frequent, their partner relationships with higher level of conflicts and mutual violence. As mothers, they themselves acted towards their children with distinctively more frequent physical coarseness and psychological cruelty. These findings repeated consistently throughout all four timeline levels of the study.


CONCLUSIONS
The relationships in the maltreated women own families were similar to the relationships in their original families, comparably worse than in the families of non-maltreated women. Women maltreated in their childhood repeated the same behavior toward their own children that their parents had towards them. Violence on children is transferred from one generation to the next and develops from their youngest age.
Masarykova univerzita Brno, Lékařská fakulta, Výzkumné pracovištĕ preventivní a sociální pediatrie.
Marie
M
Bouchalová
Lubomír
L
Kukla
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012940:Social Problems; D055815:Young Adult