Perinatal & Pediatric
How Childhood Neglect and Supportive Adults Enhance Academic Functioning through Transformational Development Takeo Fujiwara* Takeo Fujiwara
Background: While accounts of notable people facing early adversity followed by success in later life abound, epidemiological studies are lacking regarding whether specific types of adversity may contribute to positive outcomes, such as academic functioning, in particular circumstances.
Objective: To determine whether having experiences of neglect in early childhood and support from extrafamilial adults in early adolescence may enhance academic functioning in adolescence.
Methods: Prospective multi-site Longitudinal Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) data were utilized to identify individuals who experienced neglect from birth to 6 years of age (based on Child Protective Services’ records) and whether they had an extrafamilial supportive adult in their life at ages 12 and 14. Academic functioning at age 16 was based on Child Behavior Checklist Social Competency Items (CBCL SCI) School Scale. We analyzed the impact of childhood neglect (ages 0-6) and of having a supportive adult (ages 12-14) on academic functioning at age 16, using inverse probability weighting to control for site, sex, race, poverty level at age 6, as well as childhood physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, poverty level and at age 12.
Results: Early childhood neglect coupled with having an extrafamilial supportive adult in early adolescence was associated with better academic functioning at age 16 compared to academic functioning in children who had not experienced neglect and had a supportive adult (coefficient: 3.62, 95% confidence interval: 0.67 to 5.56). Total social competency was also better (coefficient: 2.62, 95% confidence interval: -0.13 to 5.37) in this group.
Conclusion: Neglect in early childhood and having an extrafamilial supportive adult may enhance later academic functioning. Suggesting transformational development, further epidemiological studies are needed to explore this phenomenon in greater depth.