Evidence Literature Review on the Outcomes for Survivors of Child Maltreatment in Residential Care or Birth Families

Literature Review on the Outcomes for Survivors of Child Maltreatment in Residential Care or Birth Families

Report for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

This is a report of a literature review on the outcomes for survivors of child maltreatment, with a particular focus on the outcomes of child abuse which occurred within the context of long-term residential child care. The phrase ‘outcomes for survivors of child abuse’ is used rather than ‘effects of child abuse’ because much of the research reviewed in this report is retrospective, rather than prospective, and so it cannot be 100% certain that the outcomes for survivors of child abuse were actually caused by maltreatment. These outcomes may have been due to other factors including adversities which occurred before, during, or after child abuse, or to personal biological, psychological or social vulnerabilities or disabilities. As will become clear in the executive summary below and the body of the report, the adverse outcomes for survivors of child abuse are so consistent across a wide range of domains in a large number of studies involving thousands of survivors, that it can be said with a degree of confidence that these probably occurred as a result of maltreatment in childhood. 

Evidence details

Author(s):

Carr, A. , Duff, H. , Craddock, F.

Evidence type:

Research Reports