Childhood abuse and neglect and adult intimate relationships: a prospective study.

The present study expands previous research on the social functioning of maltreated children by using prospective data to examine the impact of childhood victimization on rates of involvement in intimate relationships and relationship functioning in young adulthood. Findings indicate that the intimate relationships of adults maltreated as children differ from those of other adults in stability and quality. In the current study, both male and female adults who had been abused and/or neglected in childhood reported significantly higher rates of relationship disruption (walking out and divorce) than adults without abuse histories.

Abused and/or neglected women were also less likely than controls to perceive their current romantic partners as supportive, caring, and open to communication and were less likely than other women to be sexually faithful to their partners and spouses. Rates of involvement in intimate relationships also differed significantly by group, with abused and/or neglected adults being more likely to have cohabitated with romantic partners, and less likely than controls to be currently involved in a committed romantic relationship. As a general rule these patterns of relation held true across maltreatment types and were largely unaltered by the introduction of family background variables.

Several aspects of this body of findings deserve highlighting. First, although a connection between intimate relationship disturbance and child abuse has been reported in studies utilizing retrospective reports of women's sexual abuse experiences, the present findings are unique in demonstrating a long-term effect for child abuse and neglect on both males’ and females’ intimate relationships in adulthood. Data were collected using a prospective cohort design that involved court document cases of child abuse and neglect and matched controls, providing strong support for the hypothesis that early childhood maltreatment negatively impacts upon an individual's capacity to form and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships.

Moreover, the majority of effects observed for child abuse and neglect remained significant when parents’ marital status and receipt of welfare were taken into account, suggesting that early child abuse and neglect represents an important risk factor for adult relationship impairment. Although abused and neglected adults are more likely than controls to come from disadvantaged backgrounds, the experience of early childhood abuse and neglect, rather than family disadvantage per se, contributed to our understanding of poor relationship outcomes. With the exception of current relationship involvement in males and sexual faithfulness in females, parents’ marital status and receipt of welfare did not contribute to the prediction of adults’ intimate relationships once childhood victimization was taken into account.

Second, hypotheses were examined for males and females separately and by specific abuse type, providing insight into the role these factors play in predicting adult outcomes of early childhood maltreatment. While child abuse and neglect were associated with higher rates of disrupted intimate relationships among both males and females, present findings indicate that females with histories of childhood victimization were also vulnerable to relationship dysfunction. Abused and neglected women were at risk of experiencing intimacy related difficulties (dissatisfaction, sexual unfaithfulness, and infidelity) within their on-going romantic relationships; abused and neglected males were not. Thus, early childhood experiences of abuse and neglect may impact more heavily upon the expectations and social behavior of female victims of childhood maltreatment. Alternatively, given the elevated rates of relationship disruption found among abused and neglected males, males with abuse histories may be predisposed toward other types of interpersonal disturbance not examined within the current study. However, recent work on intimate partner violence casts doubt on this alternative. Higher rates of intimate partner violence among females with histories of childhood abuse and neglect than among males. Future research should seek to clarify how and why male and female victims of child abuse and neglect differ in their capacity to form and maintain healthy romantic partnerships.

Conversely, the impact of childhood maltreatment on adult intimate relationships did not differ dramatically by abuse type. In general, early physical abuse and neglect experiences, as well as childhood sexual abuse, placed individuals at significantly greater risk of intimate relationship disturbances. When analyses by specific abuse type were not significant, we suspect that reduced power due to small sample sizes within the specific abuse categories may have prevented the detection of meaningful group differences. Inspection of the percentage of individuals reporting cohabitation and walking out on romantic partners supports this hypothesis. Thus, despite the almost exclusive attention paid to childhood sexual abuse within the clinical and empirical maltreatment literature addressing intimate relationship involvement and functioning, victims of childhood sexual abuse do not appear to be uniquely vulnerable to poor relationship outcomes in adulthood. In the present study adults with histories of early childhood physical abuse and neglect also manifested relationship problems.

Of particular interest is the finding that all three types of abuse increased the risk of infidelity with multiple partners among women. Numerous theorists have hypothesized that childhood sexual abuse results in “oversexualization” (e.g., heightened sexual awareness, promiscuity), but far less attention has been paid to the impact of other forms of childhood maltreatment on adult sexual functioning. Given the heightened risk of sexual unfaithfulness found among women with histories of physical abuse and neglect in the current study, the possibility that childhood maltreatment in general undermines women's capacity to establish and maintain intimate personal boundaries should be explored. No significant differences in promiscuity rates between abused and neglected young adults and matched controls, suggesting that increased rates of infidelity and sexual unfaithfulness among maltreated women may have more to do with breakdowns in interpersonal functioning than oversexualization.

Third, in keeping with the hypothesis that child maltreatment may lead to higher rates of social avoidance and withdrawal, the pattern of intimate relationship involvement observed within the present study suggests that child maltreatment may negatively impact upon adults’ willingness to both form and maintain romantic partnerships. Consistent with more recent work on childhood sexual abuse, no differences in the likelihood of having ever married were found between the abused and neglected and control group. Abused and neglected adults were, however, more likely than controls to have cohabitated with a romantic partner for at least a year. These findings suggest that individuals with child abuse and neglect histories may be more hesitant than others to enter into the emotional and legal commitments surrounding marriage without first “trying on” a relationship via a prolonged period of cohabitation. Likewise, abused and neglected adults were more likely than controls to walk out on or divorce their romantic partners, suggesting that child abuse and neglect experiences may reduce psychological barriers to divorce. Finally, abused and neglected adults were also less likely than nonmaltreated adults to be currently involved in a committed romantic relationship. This finding is consistent with the higher rates of relationship disruption and dysfunction reported earlier, and provides additional support for the notion that the relationships of abused and neglected adults are predisposed toward instability.

It is important to note, however, that a history of childhood victimization does not inevitably lead to interpersonal dysfunction and romantic distress. Divorce and infidelity rates (for women only) were higher among abused and neglected individuals than nonmaltreated adults, but were far from universal. Of the abused and neglected individuals who had ever married, approximately 60% of the males and 40% of the females had not experienced a divorce. Likewise, nearly 90% of married abused and neglected women had not committed infidelity with multiple partners. In addition, among both males and females currently involved in a committed romantic relationship (about two-thirds of the abuse and neglect sample), perceptions of relationship quality were generally high.

Future research should therefore seek to identify factors that enhance the likelihood that abused and neglected individuals will form and maintain positive intimate relationships with romantic partners. Interpersonal relationships have been shown to be significant determinants of adults’ physical and mental health and may be important to understanding the health and functioning of adults with abuse histories. Research on adult women sexually abused as children indicates that women with marital relationships high in intimacy are less likely then women with relationships low in intimacy to manifest symptoms of depression. Having a warm, supportive spousal relationship has also been associated with breaking the cycle of violence among women abused as children. Thus, efforts aimed at discovering personal and environmental level factors that contribute to interpersonal success could prove useful to mental health and social welfare professionals interested in enhancing resiliency within maltreated populations.

Finally, despite the strengths associated with the present study, our findings may not be generalizable to all cases of childhood abuse and neglect. Our sample consisted of individuals with court-documented cases of early child abuse and neglect (before age 12). Our findings may not generalize to individuals with unreported or unsubstantiated cases of child abuse and neglect or to individuals abused and neglected in adolescence. Likewise, maltreating families who come to the attention of official agencies typically fall on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, making it difficult to determine whether abused and neglected individuals from middle or upper class homes would demonstrate the same pattern of relations as those found in our sample. Changes in institutional responses to child maltreatment cases since the late 1960s and early 1970s when our cases were selected (e.g., greater use of foster care) may also have important consequences for children's interpersonal functioning and alter the pattern of findings reported here.