Causal Pathways From Child Maltreatment to Peer Popularity

. We investigated the causal pathways from child abuse and child neglect to peer popularity through peer relationship. We hypothesized that child abuse and neglect would negatively affect peer popularity. Participants were 322 adolescents from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) database. Path analyses were conducted to analyze the data. The outcome of primary interest was peer popularity, whose determinant with the largest total causal effect was peer relationship ((3 = .23), followed by child neglect ((3 = .13) and child abuse ((3 = .02). This model explained approximately 6.5% of the variance in peer popularity. The primary determinant of peer relationship was child neglect ((3 = .23), followed by child abuse ((3 = .09). Approximately 6.2% of the variance in peer relationship was explained by this model. Therefore, compared to child abuse, child neglect appeared to impact adolescents' socioemotional development more adversely.