Medical/health histories and physical evaluation of physically and sexually abused child psychiatric patients: A controlled study

This study examines findings from a pediatric health history and child physical examination conducted for 105 outpatient and 105 inpatient children who were classified on the basis of their history of physical and sexual abuse. Based on multivariate and univariate analyses, physically abused children had more early developmental delays, neurologic soft signs, serious physical injuries, skin markings and scars, and stimulant drug use than their non-physically abused peers. Sexually abused children were reported to exhibit higher levels of sexual activity and stimulant drug use, and had more physical signs of genital manipulation than non-sexually abused children. These data highlight the need to further examine the impact of medical and developmental aberrations, the nature and origins of recurrent physical injuries in this population, and the extent of risk-taking in understanding the differences between physical and sexual child maltreatment.     

A shortened child behavior checklist for delinquency studies

This study examines the reduction of the number of items in the scales of the Child Behavior Checklist, while maintaining the reliability and predictability of its original scales. For that purpose, the original scales were replicated with data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. New, abbreviated scales were constructed using the most potent items. This process yielded trimmed scales that were highly correlated with the full scales and that still reflect the original meanings of the scales. Further, there was no loss of reliability or predictability with the trimmed as opposed to the full scales. The results were replicated in an analysis with identical variables from the Rochester Youth Development Study. This replication produced equally high reliabilities with similar levels of prediction of delinquent behavior.We would like to thank Terence P. Thornberry for helpful comments and advice on early drafts of this paper.