Life Course Models of Child Maltreatment: Effects on General Psychopathology Outcomes in a Longitudinal Sample

Abstract

The study compared life course models (LCM; accumulation, recency, and sensitive period) of child maltreatment and general psychopathology in a large, national longitudinal data set of 1354 youth ages birth-16 years (657 boys, 53.2% Black, 59.7% <$40K caregiver income). Previous research has supported the accumulation and recency models, albeit with shorter or fewer time periods of outcome measurement. We extend this work by modeling the impact of combined abuse and neglect allegations on a general psychopathology factor (dysregulation profile). Cross-sectional structural equation models were constructed using LCMs and tested across two-year periods from 4–16 years old and compared using Akaike Information Criterion weights. The recency variable generally explained the greatest proportion of variance in psychopathology. Notably, maltreatment more proximal to the time of outcome measurement had the strongest effect, suggesting that more recent maltreatment may have stronger effects on general psychopathology. These results lend support to a recency effect of maltreatment on psychopathology outcomes, although substantive overlaps with the accumulation model are noted.