Child maltreatment and adult health in a national sample: heterogeneous relational contexts, divergent effects?

OBJECTIVE

This study considers the long-term health consequences of child maltreatment. Distinct from previous research, we examine the effects of maltreatment in the context of more general parental evaluations.

METHOD

Analyses used retrospective and current data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study.

RESULTS

A considerable proportion of middle- and older-age adults who experienced frequent maltreatment nevertheless evaluated the relationship with their offending parent as "excellent", "very good", or "good" (e.g., 47% for physical and emotional maltreatment by mothers). Maltreated respondents generally evaluated their maltreating parents less favorably than non-maltreating parents, but there was considerable variation in these recollected relationships. Adults who experienced child maltreatment reported a greater number of chronic medical conditions and physical symptoms and lower self-rated health, but effects were smaller when they had positive relationships with their parents than when one or more of the relationships was perceived as negative.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight a common and seemingly paradoxical pattern among MIDUS participants: the co-presence of harsh parental behavior and positive recollections of parental relationships during childhood. Moreover, these surprising patterns of retrospective interpretation predict very different experiences of adult health - health problems are most pronounced among maltreatment in cases where the respondent had a generally negative relationship with one or more of his or her parents.