Emotional Maltreatment and Psychosocial Functioning in Preadolescent Youth Placed in Out-of-Home Care

This paper examines the impact of emotional maltreatment on the psychosocial functioning of youth placed in out-of-home care as a result of maltreatment. Participants included 243 children participating in a randomized controlled trial of a preventive intervention for preadolescent youth placed in out-of-home care. This study analyzed baseline data collected pre-randomization from interviews with children and their out-of-home caregivers and data from child welfare records. Bivariate and regression analyses were used to explore the relationships between emotional maltreatment and interpersonal functioning, self-perception, mental health, and behavioral problems for the total sample and by gender. Findings suggest that subtypes of emotional maltreatment are associated with different outcomes and that males are more negatively impacted by emotional maltreatment than are females.