Despite findings that developmental timing of maltreatment is a critical factor in predicting subsequent outcomes, children's developmental stage is understudied in maltreatment research. Moreover, childhood maltreatment is associated with the development of maladaptive peer relationships and psychopathology, with social cognition identified as a process underlying this risk. The current study utilizes structural equation modeling to examine the impact of developmental timing of maltreatment (i.e., infancy through preschool versus elementary and middle school years) on psychopathology via negative perceptions of peer relationships. Multi-informant methods were used to assess 680 socioeconomically disadvantaged children. Results did not support differential effects of early versus later maltreatment on children's internalizing symptomatology or disruptive behavior, but indicated that chronic maltreatment, relative to episodic maltreatment, has more severe consequences for children's internalizing symptomatology. Results further support the mediating role of children's perceptions of relationships in the effect of maltreatment on negative developmental outcomes.

中文翻译：

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对同伴关系的负面看法是虐待时机与精神病理学发展之间关联的机制。

尽管研究结果表明虐待的发育时间是预测后续结果的关键因素，但虐待研究中对儿童发育阶段的研究还不够。此外，儿童期虐待与适应不良的同伴关系和精神病理学的发展有关，社会认知被认为是造成这种风险的一个过程。目前的研究利用结构方程模型来研究虐待的发育时间（即婴儿期到学前班与小学和中学时期）通过对同伴关系的负面看法对精神病理学的影响。采用多信息方法对 680 名社会经济弱势儿童进行了评估。结果并不支持早期和后期虐待对儿童内化症状或破坏性行为的不同影响，但表明，相对于间歇性虐待，长期虐待对儿童内化症状有更严重的后果。结果进一步支持儿童对关系的看法在虐待对消极发展结果的影响中发挥中介作用。