The Nonverbal Decoding Ability of Children Exposed to Family Violence or Maltreatment: Prospective Evidence from a British Cohort

Abstract

The prospective association between exposure to family violence or maltreatment in the first four years of life and nonverbal decoding ability at age 8.5 years was examined in a British birth cohort. Overall differences were very minor, except it was found that children exposed to maternal victimization were less accurate in decoding low intensity expressions of fear, than were children from nonviolent homes. Children from violent homes were also more likely to identify expressions of anger, fear, and sadness as happiness. Maltreated children showed a global deficit in decoding emotions, but only when presented as high intensity expressions. Whilst these results point to longitudinal associations between these variables, they do not discount the potential impact of third variables. Results are discussed in relation to current theoretical positions, and the need for further research.

Appendix

Maltreatment Index

Evidence of childhood maltreatment during the first four years of life was ascertained using parental reports of mother-child interaction, neglect of child hygiene, excessive changes of caregiver, sexual abuse, parental cruelty to child, and harsh discipline, obtained from questionnaires administered throughout this period.

The quality of mother-child interactions was determined from a series of postal questionnaires administered when the child was 6, 18, 24, 38, and 42 months old. Questions concerned the frequency with which the mother participated in several activities with the child (e.g., singing, playing, etc.). Each item was responded to using a 3-point Likert-type scale (0 = hardly ever, 2 = often) and scale scores were derived from summing items. At each time point, those mothers whose parenting scores approximated the lowest ten percent were identified as exhibiting neglectful parenting. From this, a cumulative neglectful parenting index was developed that indicated how many times across the 5 questionnaires mothers fell into this category. Those who were present in this category at least two times (14%) were labelled neglectful.

Neglect of child hygiene was determined from one question at 6, 24, and 38 months in which mothers were asked how frequently they bathed their child. Those mothers who reported bathing their child either ‘once a week’ or ‘hardly ever’ at each time point were identified as having neglected their child’s hygiene. A cumulative hygiene neglect score was derived from summing the instances in which mothers had been categorized as neglecting the hygiene of their child across the three time points. 1300 (10.6% of the available sample) mothers were categorized as neglecting their children’s hygiene at any of the time points and as a result were coded as ‘hygiene neglecting’ in the maltreatment index.

Mothers were asked at 18, 30, and 42 months whether the child’s primary caregiver had recently changed. In keeping with the methodology employed by Caspi et al. (2002), those children who had experienced 2 or more caregiver changes were integrated into the final index. This related to (3.1%) of the sample.

Mothers were asked at 18, 30, and 42 months whether the child had been sexually abused. Very few mothers reported that their child had been sexually abuse at any of the time points: at 18 months, 5 cases, at 30 months, 4 cases, and at 42 months, 12 cases. Overall, only 21 (0.2%) mothers reported the sexual abuse of a child.

Mothers were asked at 8, 21, 33, and 47 months to report whether they themselves or their partner had been ‘emotionally’ and ‘physically’ cruel to their child. Overall, 970 (8.2%) of children were exposed to some form of parental cruelty within the first 4 years of life.

Fifth, three questions asked of mothers during the relevant period related to the use of harsh discipline. At 18 months, mothers were asked how frequently they smacked their child in order to control temper tantrums. At 24 months, mothers were asked how often they slapped their child, and at 42 months, how often they smacked their child. In order to derive an index of harsh discipline, the number of time points (0–3) in which a child was deemed to have experienced harsh discipline (physical punishment reported frequently at each time point), was calculated. From this, a dichotomous variable was derived based on those mothers who were categorized as having used harsh discipline at any time versus never. This resulted in 1232 cases (10.8%) being categorized as having experienced harsh discipline during the first 4 years of life.

A maltreatment index was derived from summing the number of maltreatment experiences during this 47-month period. In the present study, 4313 (33%) of the cohort had experienced some form of maltreatment. It was found that experiencing some form of maltreatment during the first four years of life increased the likelihood of self-reported participation in some form of antisocial behavior by age 8.5 years by 1.21 times (95% CI: 1.040–1.414, p = .014).