Maltreatment and sociometric status effects on social and affective child's adjustment.

This work studies the effects of two high risk conditions (maltreatment and sociometric rejection) on social and affective child adjustment. The sample was composed by 181 subjects classified in: (a) three different categories of maltreatment condition (physical maltreatment, family violence and nonmaltreatment) according to the answers in a semistructured interview and data from social services expedients; (b) two sociometric groups (preferred and rejected), according to the received nominations. Being maltreated physically and watching family violence produced a very similar desadaptive pattern: Maltreated subjects were characterized by externalizing conduct and, in a less proportion, internalizing conduct. The subjects that watched family violence were characterized by depressive problems and externalizing conducts. The rejected subjects, as a group, showed the most desadaptive pattern.