Long-Term Effects of Neglect on Violence: Are They Spurious or Indirect?
Violence and Crime in the Family: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences
ISBN: 978-1-78560-263-4, eISBN: 978-1-78560-262-7
Publication date: 3 September 2015
Abstract
Purpose
In the present paper we explore the long-term influence of childhood neglect on violent behavior in the transition to adulthood. In particular, we test whether neglect is spuriously related to violence due to their common association with academic achievement, physical abuse, and general offending. We then ask whether neglect has an indirect effect on violence through its impact on parental attachment, alcohol use, emotional negativity, academic achievement, or staying in school.
Methodology/approach
We use two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and employ both regression models and INDIRECT, a syntax file that allows for the testing of indirect effects using SPSS (Preacher & Hayes, 2008).
Findings
We find that the long-term association between childhood neglect and violence in the transition to adulthood is robust in models controlling for GPA, physical abuse, and other forms of offending. Neglect did not have an indirect effect on violence through attachment, negative emotionality, or academic achievement but did have indirect effects on violence through its association with staying in school and with alcohol use.
Research implications
This set of analyses was exploratory in nature. Further research on neglect should be undertaken, using finely tuned measures and research questions. In addition, our findings imply that the association between neglect and later violent behavior may be intertwined with certain dynamics of physical abuse and alcohol use, which should be further studied.
Keywords
Citation
Savage, J. and Murray, A. (2015), "Long-Term Effects of Neglect on Violence: Are They Spurious or Indirect?", Violence and Crime in the Family: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 189-218. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520150000009010
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited