This study aims to examine the (1) prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among children in kinship care; (2) relationships between the number and type of ACEs and children's internalizing and externalizing problems; and (3) moderating role of kinship caregivers' mental health on the relationships between ACEs and children's…

In this study, I investigated the maltreatment profiles of child welfare-involved children in special education and examined how those profiles influenced their internalizing and externalizing behaviors. I analyzed data on a sample of 290 children (63% male, 37% female, M[subscript age] = 11 years) from the National Survey on Child and Adolescent…

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a social plight that affects the lives of roughly 400,000 children annually within the United States. However, while a significant body of research exists conceptualizing the impacts of CSA on adolescent-aged children, little research is available to synthesize the impacts of CSA on preschool-aged children, particularly…

The objective of this study was to examine how behavioral manifestations of trauma due to abuse are expressed in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) compared outcomes between patients with a caregiver reported history of abuse and those without. Findings indicate that patients with ASD and reported abuse…

Sexual abuse and peer victimization often co-occur and generate similar repercussions. The current study aimed to determine the extent to which child sexual abuse is associated to peer victimization. The unique contribution of these two distinct forms of victimization to the prediction of behavior problems was also investigated in a sample of 532…

To determine whether children and adolescents (7-17 years old) who had experienced physical, sexual, or both types of abuse reflected distinct profiles of personal resiliency, we administered the "Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents" (RSCA) to 250 youth. We performed cluster analyses with T scores for the RSCA Self-Mastery,…

This article describes how a Tulane early childhood mental health clinic provided trauma-informed care for a young, severely maltreated child victim of human trafficking. Effective treatment included two evidence-based therapies and psychiatric care over a span of 2 years. Therapists made decisions about intervention in response to fluctuations in…

A robust literature links childhood sexual abuse (CSA) to later substance use and sexual risk behavior; yet, relatively little empirical attention has been devoted to identifying the mechanisms linking CSA to risky behavior among youth, with even less work examining such processes in boys. With the aim of addressing this gap in the literature, the…

Objective: To examine whether notified child maltreatment is associated with adverse psychological outcomes in adolescence, and whether differing patterns of psychological outcome are seen depending on the type of maltreatment. Methods: The participants were 7,223 mother and child pairs enrolled in a population-based birth cohort study in…

Incidences and severity of child abuse have increased since the start of the recession. This study examined the relationship between employment status and severity of symptoms in children abused during a recession year. Participants included 154 females and 65 males between 2 and 17 years old referred to Dallas Children's Advocacy Center after…

In a recent paper published in the "Journal of Child Sexual Abuse," we assessed the differences between sexually victimized and nonsexually victimized male adolescent sexual abusers (Burton, Duty, & Leibowitz, 2011). We found that the sexually victimized group had more severe developmental antecedents (e.g., trauma and early exposure to…

Objective: To examine the associations between child physical abuse executed by a parent or caretaker and self-rated health problems/risk-taking behaviors among teenagers. Further to evaluate concurrence of other types of abuse and how these alone and in addition to child physical abuse were associated with bad health status and risk-taking…

Previous research suggests that individuals abused as children are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior during adulthood. The present study examined early maladaptive schemas as mediators of the child abuse-risky sexual behavior relationship among 653 college women. Self-report surveys assessed three forms of child abuse: Sexual,…

When the author was adviser to the Australian Minister for Education for writing the national Safe Schools Framework (2003), meetings were held with early-childhood care and education administrators from all state, Catholic and independent sectors. Their unexpected message was that educators were facing new problems, those of child sexual abuse in…

Objective: Based on the data obtained through Child Protective Services (CPS) case records abstraction, this study aimed to explore patterns of overlapping types of child maltreatment in a sample of urban, ethnically diverse male and female youth (n= 303) identified as maltreated by a large public child welfare agency. Methods: A cluster analysis…