THE EFFECTS OF EARLY CHILD PHYSICAL ABUSE ON SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC COMPETENCE IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Childhood maltreatment is a national health crisis that affected at least 674,000 children and killed 1,720 more in the United States in 2017 alone (Crooks & Wolfe, 2007; U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2019). This study specifically focuses on the effects of early childhood physical abuse at age 5 on social and academic competence in middle childhood. Data for this study were derived from a 24-year longitudinal, multisite study called the Child Development Project (CDP) (Lansford et al., 2002). There were 585 children included in the dataset from three sites: Bloomington, Indiana, and Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee who were recruited upon entry to kindergarten in 1987 and 1988. I utilized linear regressions to examine the relationship between early physical abuse and social and academic competence. Results revealed that physical abuse had a negative association with social competence at age 11 and all academic competence variables assessed at age 12. However, once social competence was controlled for, early physical abuse did not predict most later academic competence variables at age 12, suggesting that social competence mediated the relationship between early physical abuse and certain forms of academic competence. These results contribute to the limited literature on the effects of early physical abuse on social and academic competence in middle childhood