NCJ Number
220531
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 16 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 2007 Pages: 323-341
Date Published
September 2007
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Based on indepth interviews with 20 adults receiving welfare in Victoria, Australia, this study examined links between current poverty and abuse and adversity in their childhoods.
Abstract
The study found that a complex process that leads to poverty in adulthood could stem from experiences of abuse and adversity in childhood. Childhood abuse and adversity began a process of "negative chain effects" (Rutter, 2000) that limited the ability of the interviewees to participate successfully in many areas of life, including education, with consequent effects on their ability to gain employment. Factors leading to problematic employment status included poor educational performance and physical and mental health problems. Feeling deprived of parental love, support, and communication was a major theme in the accounts of childhood and adolescence for virtually all interviewees. In addition, a number of interviewees reported being physically abused by one or both parents. The attachment relationships that develop between caregivers and children have proven to be important measures of the level of development and adaptation in the pathway to adulthood. Experiences of grief and loss as children were also widespread among interviewees as children, including both the death of parents and parents leaving them with little or no further contact. Although some interviewees came from lower socioeconomic families, the majority reported parents being in skilled trades or middle-class occupational groups. Of greater influence on subsequent poverty were the level of family functioning and the absence of love and support. 109 references