The role of child maltreatment and adolescent victimization in predicting adolescent psychopathology and problematic substance use.

BACKGROUND: Maltreated children are more likely to experience adolescent victimization, which may underlie the association between maltreatment and adolescent psychopathology and substance use.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether number of adolescent victimization types predicts adolescent psychopathology and problematic substance use over and above number of child maltreatment subtypes; whether adolescent victimization mediates the relations between maltreatment and change in adolescent psychopathology and problematic substance use; and whether maltreatment moderates the relation between adolescent victimization and changes in these outcomes.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 545 (295 maltreated, 250 non-maltreated; 328 males, 217 females) racially and ethnically diverse (52.8 % Black, 27.5 % White, 12.8 % Bi-racial; 13.4 % Latino/a) children and families from the Rochester, New York, USA area assessed across three waves of data (Wave 1, Mage  = 7.6 years; Wave 2, Mage  = 13.8 years; Wave 3, Mage  = 16.2 years).

METHODS: Maltreatment was coded at Wave 1 using Department of Human Services records. Adolescents self-reported psychopathology, problematic substance use, and victimization at Waves 2 and 3.

RESULTS: Structural equation modeling revealed that adolescent victimization predicted adolescent psychopathology (β = 0.24, p < .001) and problematic substance use (β = 0.27, p < .001) over and above child maltreatment. Adolescent victimization did not mediate the association between child maltreatment change in psychopathology and problematic substance use and child maltreatment did not moderate the association between adolescent victimization and these outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the importance of future research utilizing multi-wave designs to examine relations between these constructs and of assessing for more proximal victimization.