The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of adolescent attachment to parents and attachment to school in the relationship of maltreatment subtype, severity, and perpetrator to subsequent, self-reported delinquency.
Using three waves of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) maltreatment records of a sample of 827 adolescents were first used to separately test the relationship of the maltreatment dimensions of subtype, severity and perpetrator to self-reported delinquency 36 months later. Next, the relationships between the maltreatment dimensions to two measures of attachment to parents and two measures of attachment to school at 18 months following maltreatment were tested. Lastly, the attachment to parents and attachment to school variables identified as significantly related to maltreatment were then included as potential mediating variables in the relationship of maltreatment to self-reported delinquency at 36 months following maltreatment.
All three maltreatment dimensions were found to be significantly related to self-reported delinquency 36 months later, although not always consistent with the hypothesized findings. None of the maltreatment dimensions were found to be significantly related to either of the variables representing attachment to parents. Maltreatment subtype was found to be significantly related to both variables representing attachment to school, however these variables did not significantly attenuate the relationship between maltreatment and self-reported delinquency in the mediation model analysis. These findings did not support the role of attachment to parents and attachment to school in mediating the effect of adolescent maltreatment on subsequent, self-reported delinquency.