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Early developmental vulnerabilities following exposure to domestic violence and abuse: Findings from an Australian population cohort record linkage study

Date

2022

Authors

Whitten, T.
Green, M.J.
Tzoumakis, S.
Laurens, K.R.
Harris, F.
Carr, V.J.
Dean, K.

Editors

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Type:

Journal article

Citation

Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2022; 153:223-228

Statement of Responsibility

Tyson Whitten, Melissa J. Green, Stacy Tzoumakis, Kristin R. Laurens, Felicity Harris, Vaughan J. Carr, Kimberlie Dean

Conference Name

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.07.012

Abstract

Early life exposure to Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) is associated with poor psychosocial and cognitive development in childhood. However, most prior research uses mother-reported involvement in DVA as a proxy indicator of child exposure; studies using direct measures of child exposure to DVA are scarce, especially among representative population-based samples. We address this gap by using longitudinal, population-based data from an Australian record linkage study of children to examine the associations between early life exposure to DVA and early childhood developmental vulnerability. Exposure to DVA was measured using police contact records for children involved in a DVA incident either as a victim or witness. Developmental vulnerability at school entry was measured using the Australian Early Development Census, providing indices of five broad domains of function and person-centred classes of developmental risk (referred to as ‘mild generalized risk’, ‘misconduct risk’, and ‘pervasive risk’, each compared to a group showing ‘no risk’). Children exposed to DVA showed significantly greater odds of developmental vulnerability on all five domains and were more likely to be members of the three developmental risk classes. Girls who were victims of DVA (OR = 1.65) had significantly poorer developmental outcomes than boys who were victims (OR = 1.26) within the domain of communication skills and general knowledge (d = 0.29 [SE = 0.16], p = .04). No other sex differences were found. These preliminary findings hold important implications for policy regarding the early intervention and implementation of support services for young children exposed to DVA.

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Dissertation Note

Provenance

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Access Status

Rights

© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

License

Grant ID

http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP110100150
 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170101403
 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT170100294
 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE210100113
 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1058652
 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1148055
 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1133833
 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1175408

Published Version

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.07.012

Call number

Persistent link to this record

https://hdl.handle.net/2440/136823