CHAPTER FOUR
4.6 Conclusions and recommendations for further research
The focus of this exploratory study was to examine maltreated children’s and primary caregivers’ views of the child’s psychological well-being and the child’s view of the court proceedings. A high prevalence of psychological adjustment problems was found amongst children from both the child’s and primary caregivers’ perspectives. A sub group of children in care were found to possess a dysfunctional cognitive view of the care proceedings, as indicated by negative thoughts, feelings and a confused, insecure understanding of their past and present lives. Acceptance of the care proceedings was positively associated with children’s perceptions of their emotional state. Moreover, children’s acceptance of court proceedings was positively related to caregivers’ views of
There is a pressing need for further maltreatment research examining both children’s and caregivers’ perspectives of the child’s psychological adjustment. Further large-scale empirical investigations should include unbiased samples of maltreated children both living in care and with their natural parents. Such research should include consideration of multidimensional aspects of children’s substantiated maltreatment histories (Manly et al, 1994). Exploration of multidimensional aspects of children’s abusive experiences would enable more specific information to be obtained about prognostic indicators for psychological adjustment or maladjustment following maltreatment. Further child abuse and neglect research should include matched control groups of children with no known history of abuse or neglect, to allow meaningful comparisons to be made between the psychological development of maltreated and the normal child populations. Moreover, future research studies should use multiple regression analyses to enable specific information to be obtained about those sample characteristics at the time of maltreatment or longitudinal follow-up which predict variance in children’s scores on standard psychological adjustment measures.
In order to advance psychological knowledge in the field of child abuse and neglect research, there is also a need for more longitudinal research. Those factors seen to be indicating poor adjustment in this pilot study may in fact be potentially potent predictors of poor adjustment in a larger sample. Furthermore, continuation of this research over a long-term perspective may enable the identification of factors that can be viewed as
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Table 18. Mean, range, and standard deviation scores obtained by the sample on
the twenty-three sub-scale dimensions of the SAICA.
Measure N Min M ax Mean SD Range
Athletic 26 1.40 3.60 2 .76 .60 2.20 Appear 26 1.60 4.00 2 .63 .53 2.40 Actives 26 1.37 3.43 2 .47 .43 2.06 Conduct 26 1.40 3.40 2 .37 .48 2 .00 Father 24 1.33 4.00 2 .65 .68 2 .67 Job Comp 20 1.20 4.00 2 .35 .64 2.8 Kid Prob 26 1.25 3.36 2 .25 .61 2.11 Kid Rel 26 1.00 3.20 2.22 .66 2.20 Kid Tot 26 1.18 3.00 2.24 .55 1.82 M ark 26 1.00 3.33 2.31 .66 2.33 Mother 25 1.00 3.00 2.24 .71 2 .00 P ar Prob 25 1.00 3.50 2.02 .74 2.50 P a r Tot 25 1.22 3.00 2 .12 .42 1.78 Romance 18 1.50 4.00 2 .62 .69 2 .50 Sch Comp 26 1.00 3.40 2.45 .65 2.40 Sch Prob 26 1.39 3.20 2.27 .45 1.81 S e lf W o r 24 1.20 3.75 2.34 .63 2 .55 Sib Prob 25 1.33 4.00 2.45 .63 2.67 Sib Tot 25 1.33 4.00 2.52 .58 2.67 Soc Comp 25 1.20 3.40 2.18 .57 2.20 Spa Prob 26 1.20 3.80 2.82 .58 2.60 Spa Tot 26 1.00 2.87 2.28 .34 1.87
Relationship between the SDQ and caregivers’ placement appraisal
A series of six Kendall tau-c correlations are computed to indicate the degree of relationship between caregiver’s ratings of children’s psychological functioning on the