Role Of Social Support In Mitigating The Effects Of Child Abuse: A Mixed Method Study

Abstract

This paper has main aim that First, to assess actually abused children's perceptions of teacher, peer, and family support; second, to determine whether the levels of perceived support differ according to the person's social role; and third to assess which sources of social support show stronger associations with modification in a physically abused   child. A number of cross-sectional and a small number of longitudinal studies have shown a developmental relationship between child abuse and   adult physical and mental health. Published findings also suggest that social support can lessen the risk of unhelpful outcomes for some abused children. However, few studies have investigated whether social support mediates   the relationship between child abuse and adult physical and mental health. Structural equation modeling was used to examine data on these topics from a longitudinal study of more than 35 years. While a latent construct of physical and emotional child abuse did not forecast adult health outcomes directly, child abuse did predict outcomes indirectly through social support.