University of Utah College of Social Work, 395 South 1500 East #111, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, United States.
University of Connecticut School of Social Work, 38 Prospect Street, Hartford, CT, 06103, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2020 Sep;107:104588. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104588. Epub 2020 Jun 11.
Youth who are or have been in foster care (foster youth) are at higher risk for adverse outcomes in early adulthood. As the importance and complexity of victimization experiences, including types, timing, and perpetrators, is better understood it is unclear whether or to what extent the research on foster youth assesses polyvictimization. Because many types of victimization, such as community violence, are under-reported or absent in the administrative data typically used for research with foster care populations, self-reports of victimization experiences are necessary to comprehensively assess polyvictimization. Polyvictimization places youth at increased risk for adverse outcomes, and yet is not widely measured in the foster youth population. This is likely in part due to the wide-use of administrative reports to assess maltreatment among research on foster youth which does not capture a full range of victimization experiences.
The aim of the present study was to systematically review and evaluate the measurement of self-reported polyvictimization with foster youth samples.
A search in Academic Search Premier, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Social Work Abstracts, SociINDEX, and Scopus was conducted. Articles included peer-reviewed, quantitative research studies that measured self-reported victimization (including violence exposure and/or maltreatment) with foster youth samples between 1997-2017. In total, 1887 studies were identified and reviewed by two raters and of those 18 met the study criteria.
Almost all of the included studies (n = 16) measured multiple types of victimization through self-report. The most common types of victimization measured were sexual abuse (n = 15), physical abuse (n = 14), and physical neglect (n = 11). Half of studies (n = 9) measured at least one non-maltreatment victimization experience, such as community violence exposure and/or dating violence. However, included studies rarely measured other aspects of victimization, such as timing of exposure (e.g., pre or during foster care), which research has identified as relevant to outcomes.
This is the first systematic review to assess the measurement of self-reported polyvictimization in research with current or former foster youth. Given the limited comprehensive assessment of victimization, these findings support strong recommendations for developing or adapting polyvictimization measures specifically for foster youth so that the measures include child welfare-specific factors such as the timing and perpetration of victimization experiences.
曾在寄养家庭中生活或目前正在寄养家庭生活的年轻人（寄养青年）在成年早期面临更高的不良后果风险。随着对受害经历（包括类型、时间和施害者）的重要性和复杂性的认识不断提高，目前尚不清楚研究寄养青年的情况是否以及在何种程度上评估了多受害者经历。由于许多类型的受害经历，如社区暴力，在通常用于研究寄养人口的行政数据中报告不足或不存在，因此需要自我报告受害经历，以全面评估多受害者经历。多受害者经历使青年面临更高的不良后果风险，但在寄养青年群体中并未广泛测量。这在一定程度上可能是由于在研究寄养青年的虐待行为中广泛使用行政报告来评估，而这些报告并未涵盖全部受害经历。
本研究的目的是系统地回顾和评估对具有寄养青年样本的自我报告多受害者经历的测量。
在 Academic Search Premier、MEDLINE、PsycARTICLES、Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection、Social Work Abstracts、SociINDEX 和 Scopus 中进行了检索。纳入的文章包括对 1997 年至 2017 年期间具有寄养青年样本的自我报告受害（包括暴力暴露和/或虐待）的同行评议、定量研究。总共鉴定了 1887 项研究，并由两名评估者进行了审查，其中 18 项符合研究标准。
几乎所有纳入的研究（n=16）都通过自我报告测量了多种类型的受害经历。测量最多的受害类型是性虐待（n=15）、身体虐待（n=14）和身体忽视（n=11）。一半的研究（n=9）测量了至少一种非虐待受害经历，如社区暴力暴露和/或约会暴力。然而，纳入的研究很少测量其他方面的受害经历，例如暴露时间（例如，在寄养之前或期间），而研究已经确定这与结果相关。
这是第一项评估当前或以前的寄养青年研究中自我报告多受害者经历测量的系统综述。鉴于对受害经历的综合评估有限，这些发现支持强烈建议为寄养青年开发或改编多受害者经历的措施，以便这些措施包括儿童福利的具体因素，如受害经历的时间和施害者。
