Quality of life among Swedish school children who experienced multitype child maltreatment.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the overlap between child maltreatment types and their association with quality of life among school children.

Methods: A national cross-sectional study of 3202 grade nine Swedish pupils of 15 years of age was carried out in 2011 with an 84% response rate. Data were analysed using Pearson chi-square and multiple linear regression analyses.

Results: Of the total sample, 650 children (20%) reported at least one type of maltreatment. There was a large degree of overlap between maltreatment types. In particular, neglect and witnessing intimate partner violence overlapped with most other types of maltreatment. There was a significant relationship between the degree of abuse and multitype maltreatment. Results showed a linear relationship between the number of types of maltreatment and quality of life (p < 0.001), indicating a dose-response relationship.

Conclusion: The results emphasise the negative impact of child maltreatment on children's lives and highlight the importance of taking the broad spectrum of child maltreatment into account in both research and practice. A more comprehensive assessment of the width of maltreatment among professionals may help to identify the most seriously maltreated children and lead to an improved ability to target intervention and prevention at these children.