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Showing 4 verified claims · maltreatment & adversity outcomes
Childhood neglect — the chronic absence of expected cognitive, linguistic, social, and caregiving input — is associated with substantial, often lasting deficits in cognitive ability, executive function, and brain development; the deprivation pathway is distinct from the threat pathway of abuse, and randomized evidence from early-deprivation studies supports a causal contribution.
Parental substance use disorder is a moderate risk factor for child maltreatment and for worse developmental, behavioral, and mental-health outcomes, operating largely through impaired, inconsistent, or disengaged caregiving; the risk is graded by severity of use and substance type, is confounded by co-occurring adversity, and substance use alone does not establish maltreatment or parental unfitness.
Parental incarceration is associated with worse child outcomes — particularly antisocial behavior and, into young adulthood, anxiety, substance-use disorder, and reduced educational attainment — but the most rigorous studies, which control for pre-existing antisocial behavior and shared genetic/family confounding, find the independent effect is smaller and uneven across domains; paternal-incarceration effects are better supported than maternal, and much of the raw association reflects selection.