Child abuse rises in connection with soldiers' deployments

Large study explores child maltreatment patterns in families of US Army soldier-parents

November 13, 2015

Science Daily/Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Children under age two may be at heightened risk for abuse and neglect during the six months immediately following a parent's return from deployment in the US Army, and the risk may rise among Army families with soldiers who are deployed more than once, suggests new research.

Researchers from the PolicyLab at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) performed one of the largest longitudinal retrospective studies analyzing child abuse and neglect among Army families. Supported by the Defense Health Program, the study appeared in the American Journal of Public Health.

"Prior research had revealed an increased risk to children while parents were deployed, mostly due to supervisory neglect while parents were overseas," said the study's senior author, David M. Rubin, M.D., MSCE, the co-director of PolicyLab. "This study is the first to reveal an increased risk when soldiers with young children return home from deployment. This demonstrates that elevated stress when a soldier returns home can have real and potentially devastating consequences for some military families."

"While incidents of child abuse and neglect among military families are well below that of the general population, this study is another indicator of the stress deployments place on soldiers, family members and caregivers," said Karl F. Schneider, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. "Since the end of the data collection period in 2007, the Army has enacted myriad programs to meet these kinds of challenges head on, and we will continue working to ensure services and support are available to soldiers, families, and their children."

The study drew on two different measures of child abuse from Army databases: substantiated child maltreatment reports and medical diagnoses of child maltreatment. The substantiated reports, collected by the Family Advocacy Program (FAP) of the Department of Defense, captured four types of child maltreatment: physical, sexual, and emotional, and neglect. The medical diagnoses were identified from TRICARE, the healthcare program for U.S. service members and their families.

The study included children under age two in Army families of over 112,000 soldiers deployed once or twice during the years 2001 to 2007. The first two years of a child's life are known to be a period of high stress for families.

The researchers compared patterns of abuse and neglect in Army families of soldiers deployed only once versus those deployed twice. The study focused on the first two years of a child's life because of the elevated risk for life-threatening child abuse among infants that exceeds risk in all other age groups.

Although the proportion of families whose children were identified with abuse or neglect was low, the researchers found there was an elevated risk of abuse and neglect specifically during the six months immediately following a soldier's one-time deployment. When soldiers were deployed twice, the highest rate of abuse and neglect occurred during the second deployment, and was usually perpetrated by a non-soldier caregiver. The rate of substantiated child abuse and neglect doubled during the second deployment compared to the first deployment period.

"The finding that in most cases the perpetrators were not the soldiers themselves reveals to us that the stress that plays out in Army families during or after deployment impacts the entire family, and is not simply a consequence of the soldier's experience and stress following deployment," said Christine Taylor, the study's lead author, a project manager at CHOP's PolicyLab.

The Family Advocacy Program offers a breadth of valuable services to families, such as parenting classes, child care services, and classes focused on a soldier's reintegration into home life. Ultimately, these findings may inform efforts by the military and civilian systems to standardize care and support military families during all periods of elevated risk.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151113105622.htm

Large declines seen in teen substance abuse, delinquency

Surveys over a decade indicate positive behavioral shifts

October 25, 2017

Science Daily/Washington University School of Medicine

In recent years, teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, according to researchers. Teens also are less likely to engage in behaviors like fighting and stealing, and the researchers believe the declines in substance use and delinquency are connected.

More than a decade of data indicates teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, and they also are less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors, such as fighting and stealing, according to results of a national survey analyzed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The data come from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual survey of 12- to 17-year-olds from all 50 states that is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The data include information from 2003 through 2014, the last year for which survey numbers are available. A total of 210,599 teens -- 13,000 to 18,500 each year -- were part of the study.

The findings are reported Oct. 25 in the journal Psychological Medicine.

The researchers found that the number of substance-use disorders among 12- to 17-year olds had declined by 49 percent over the 12-year span, along with a simultaneous 34 percent decline in delinquent behaviors, such as fighting, assault, stealing, selling drugs or carrying a handgun.

The drop in substance abuse among teens parallels findings in other recent surveys, but until now no one has looked at how the drop-off may be linked to other behavioral issues.

"We've known that teens overall are becoming less likely to engage in risky behaviors, and that's good news," said first author Richard A. Grucza, PhD, a professor of psychiatry. "But what we learned in this study is that the declines in substance abuse are connected to declines in delinquency. This suggests the changes have been driven more by changes in adolescents themselves more than by policies to reduce substance abuse or delinquent behavior."

Other researchers have found that teens are delaying sex and using seat belts more often than their parents and grandparents. Grucza's team focused on substance-use disorders -- involving alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, opioids and the abuse of other prescription drugs or nonprescription drugs -- and delinquent behaviors.

"It's not clear what is driving the parallel declines," Grucza said. "New policies -- including things like higher cigarette taxes and stricter anti-bullying policies -- certainly have a positive effect. But seeing these trends across multiple behaviors suggests that larger environmental factors are at work. These might include reductions in childhood lead exposure, lower rates of child abuse and neglect, and better mental health care for children."

Although heroin and opioid abuse have become epidemic in many areas of the United States, the use among teens has fallen, according to the survey data.

"Opioid problems continue to increase among adults," he said. "But among the 12- to 17-year-old population, we saw a drop of nearly 50 percent."

Based on the survey data, Grucza and his team estimated that in 2014 there were nearly 700,000 fewer adolescents with substance-use disorders than in 2003. And because it's possible for a person to be addicted to nicotine while abusing alcohol or marijuana, the researchers estimate the total number of substance-use disorders among adolescents declined by about 2 million.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171025090515.htm

Abused girls may have higher risk of heart disease, stroke as adults

November 30, 2011

Science Daily/American Heart Association

Sexually and physically abused girls may have higher risks for heart attacks, heart disease and strokes as adults, according to new research.

In the study, compared to women who weren't molested or raped as children or teens, women who reported:

Repeated episodes of forced sex in childhood or adolescence had a 62 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease as adults.

Severe physical abuse in childhood or adolescence was associated with a 45 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events.

Mild to moderate physical or sexual abuse was not associated with increased risk.

"The single biggest factor explaining the link between severe child abuse and adult cardiovascular disease was the tendency of abused girls to have gained more weight throughout adolescence and into adulthood,' said Janet Rich-Edwards, Sc.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass.

"Women who experience abuse need to take special care of their physical and emotional well-being to reduce their risk of chronic disease," Rich-Edwards said. "Primary care health professionals need to consider childhood abuse histories of women as they transition into adulthood but to help the health professionals prevent cardiovascular disease among women with a history of abuse, we need to learn more about specific psychological, lifestyle, and medical interventions to improve the health of abuse survivors."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111113141258.htm

Experiential avoidance increases PTSD risk following child maltreatment

- March 5, 2014

Science Daily/Penn State

Child abuse is a reliable predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder, but not all maltreated children suffer from it, according researchers, who examined why some maltreated children develop PTSD and some do not.

The research team found that adolescent girls who experienced maltreatment in the past year and were willing to talk about their painful experiences and their thoughts and emotions, were less likely to have PTSD symptoms one year later. Those who tried to avoid painful thoughts and emotions were significantly more likely to exhibit PTSD symptoms down the road.

Approximately 40 percent of maltreated children develop PTSD at some point in their lives. Shenk sought to identify the factors that kept the remaining 60 percent from experiencing the disorder.

"Children and adolescents react very differently to abuse, and we don't yet know who is going to develop PTSD and who won't," said Shenk. "What factors explain who will develop PTSD and who will not? This study attempted to identify those causal pathways to PTSD."

"If we can find what the cause or risk pathway is, then we know what to target clinically," he said.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140305125239.htm