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. 2021 Mar 16;21(1):89.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03083-8.

Associations between developmental timing of child abuse and conduct problem trajectories in a UK birth cohort

Andreas Bauer  1 , Gemma Hammerton  2 , Abigail Fraser  2   3 , Graeme Fairchild #  4 , Sarah L Halligan #  4
Affiliations

Associations between developmental timing of child abuse and conduct problem trajectories in a UK birth cohort

Andreas Bauer et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Although there is strong evidence for a relationship between child abuse and neglect and conduct problems, associations between child abuse experienced at different developmental stages and developmental trajectories of conduct problems have not been examined. We sought to investigate effects of timing of child abuse on conduct problem trajectories in a large UK birth cohort study.

Methods: We applied latent class growth analysis to identify conduct problem trajectories in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, using parent-rated conduct problems from ages 4-17 years (N = 10,648). Childhood-only and adolescence-only abuse, in addition to abuse in both developmental periods ('persistent' abuse), were assessed by retrospective self-report at age 22 years (N = 3172).

Results: We identified four developmental trajectories: early-onset persistent (4.8%), adolescence-onset (4.5%), childhood-limited (15.4%), and low (75.3%) conduct problems. Childhood-only abuse and 'persistent' abuse were associated with increased odds of being on the early-onset persistent and adolescence-onset conduct problem trajectories compared to the low conduct problems trajectory. Adolescence-only abuse was not predictive of trajectory membership. There were no associations between abuse and childhood-limited trajectory membership.

Conclusions: Early-onset persistent and adolescence-onset conduct problems showed similar patterns of association with abuse exposure, challenging developmental theories that propose qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, differences in environmental risk factors between these trajectories. The results also highlight that childhood-only and 'persistent' abuse were more strongly linked to elevated conduct problem trajectories than adolescence-only abuse, and that 'persistent' abuse is particularly detrimental.

Keywords: ALSPAC; Antisocial behavior; Child abuse; Child maltreatment; Conduct problems; Developmental trajectories; Latent class growth analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Predicted category proportions for each class in the conduct problems trajectory model (N = 10,648)
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