Source+Eight

Ford, J., Fraleigh, L., & Connor, D. (2010). Child abuse and agression among seriously emotionally abused children. //Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology//, //39//(1), 25-34.

1. In a sample of 397 seriously emotionally disturbed children, reactive aggression was associated with documented history of physical abuse but not sexual abuse.

2. By contrast, a history of physical abuse was associated with a 12-fold increase in the likelihood of being classified as reactively aggressive.

3. Boys with a history of physical abuse were more than 50% more likely than boys without past physical abuse to be classified as reactively aggressive.

4. Thus, a child with a maximal reactive aggression score (5) would be 16 times (24) more likely than a child with the lowest reactive aggression score (1) to have a history of physical abuse.

5. Results suggest that seriously emotionally disturbed boys who have histories of physical abuse may be particularly prone to reactive, but not proactive, aggression.

6. Emotional abuse in childhood is associated with increased severity of self-reported anxiety, depression, and emotional and cognitive dysregulation in adulthood.

7. The likelihood of past physical abuse was noticeably lower for the proactive-only subgroup (39%) than the proactive-plus-reactive subgroup (56%) and the latter was comparable to the likelihood of physical abuse in the reactive-only subgroup (65%).

8. When reactive aggression is identified, the contribution of past physical abuse and traumatic stress warrants careful assessment.

9. Moreover, when sexual abuse co-occurs with or is preceded or followed by physical abuse, as appeared particularly likely for girls, a combination of reactive aggression secondary to physical abuse and dysregulation of emotion and consciousness related to sexual abuse may occur.

10. Table 1 presents correlational results showing that proactive and reactive aggression, and physical and sexual abuse, were strongly related on a bivariate basis.

11. Reactive aggression was associated with younger age, ethnoracial minority status, and physical abuse.

12. Proactive aggression was associated with female gender and ethnoracial minority status. Physical and sexual abuse each were associated with female gender.

13. Gender also may play a role in both vulnerability to abuse of different types and likelihood of problems with aggression.

14. Aggression is a problematic component of severe externalizing behavior disorders that is associated with a history of child abuse.

15. Aggression type also is independent of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder as assessed by teachers in school classrooms, in play groups, and in adjudicated adolescents.