Exploring the impact of racial and ethnic differences in the emotional and behavioral responses of maltreated youth: Implications for culturally competent services

Schnavia Smith Hatcher, Tina Maschi, Keith Morgen and Ivory A. Toldson

Children and Youth Services Review, 2009, vol. 31, issue 9, 1042-1048

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the moderating influence of race/ethnicity on the relationship between child maltreatment and internalizing symptoms (e.g., affective and somatic problems) and externalizing behavior (e.g., rule breaking behavior and aggression) among African-American and Caucasian children aged 7 to 12Â years old. Using a longitudinal comparison group design and a sample of 190 youth of which 36% had substantiated cases of child maltreatment, results of a structural equation modeling revealed that race/ethnicity did not have a conditioning influence on the link between internalizing and externalizing behavior among maltreated youth. However, African-American youth's internalizing symptoms and externalizing behavior was consistently significantly higher than their Caucasian counterparts. These findings provide evidence for racial/ethnic differences in the pathways between being child maltreatment and maladaptive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Thus, adapting evidence-based strategies that target cultural specific internalizing behaviors and externalizing behaviors among maltreated youth may significantly reduce the risk of short and long-term maladaptive behavior.

Keywords: Race/ethnicity; Child; welfare; Child; maltreatment; Children; and; adolescents; Internalizing; Behavior; Externalizing; behavior; Child; behavior; checklist; Moderation; analysis; Longitudinal; Analysis; Structural; equation; modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(09)00117-0
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:31:y:2009:i:9:p:1042-1048

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().