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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the study

This study explored connections between child abuse and educational attainment. Adult survivors of childhood abuse may suffer from effects that carry long into adulthood (Chartier, Walker, & Naimark, 2009).  These survivors tend to suffer from both physical health and mental health issues ( Chartier et al., 2009).  Some examples that can result from child abuse are drug use, suicide attempts, sexually transmitted diseases, and risky sexual behavior ( Norman, 2012).  Child abuse can lead to increased incidences of major depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other anxiety disorders ( Neigh,Gillespie, & Nemeroff, 2009).  Examples of increased risk for physical health issues that can result from child abuse include obesity, heart disease, chronic lung disease, skeletal fractures, and cancer (Gilbert et al., 2009). Fuller-Thomson, Brennenstuhl, and Frank (2010) f ound that those survivors who experienced childhood abuse are less likely to graduate from high school.  Research has indicated that the adult survivors of childhood abuse tend to have lower socioeconomic statuses, higher rates of unemployment, and Medicaid usage (Zielinski, 2009).  These factors are part of what one might presume contributes to lower education achievement.

The research is broad on the topic of child abuse survivors from multiple types of abuse and higher education.  A search on Google Scholar of child abuse and education yielded results on sexual abuse and education. Educational attainment was a small portion of a study on adolescent risk factors for maltreatment by Thornberry et al. (2014). These authors found that students who were disengaged from school and had lower expectations for college (Thornberry et al., 2014).  Many studies that focused on higher education and survivors of child abuse concentrated on the negative factors such as posttraumatic stress disorder, and alcohol use (Goldstein, Flett, & Wekerle, 2010; Read, Oiumette, White, Colder, & Farrow, 2011).  A multitude of studies focused on resilience and protective factors, yet few studies focus directly on school factors as a central mediator (Smith, Park, Ireland, Elwyn, & Thornberry, 2013).

 A considerable body of literature use the terms child abuse and child maltreatment interchangeably. Fang, Brown, Florence, and Mercy (2012) defined child maltreatment by stating there are four major types of maltreatment: physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect.  Acharya et al. (2014) used a more expansive definition of child abuse to include the four major types identified by Fang et al. with the addition of negligent treatment, or other exploitation resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development, or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust, or power.  For this study, child abuse was defined as physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect (see Fang et al., 2012).  A more detailed discussion on the definition of child abuse for this study is provided in Chapter 2.

The succeeding section, background, describes the foundation for this study. Subsequent sections include the problem statement, purpose of the study, research questions, theoretical foundation, nature of study, definitionns, assumptions, scope and delimitations, limitations and significance.

An estimated 686,000 children in the United States were victims of abuse in 2012 (United States Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2013).  This estimate comes from abuse that was reported to Child Protective Services (USDHHS, 2013).  Adult survivors of child abuse can suffer from numerous physical and mental health complications,

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