The Japanese Journal of Criminal Psychology

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Some researchers have reviewed the previous findings on the intelligence of maltreated children. However, most of their reviews were qualitative and subjective. The purpose of this study was to review the literatures on the intelligence of maltreated children and to synthesize the findings quantitatively and objectively. Meta-analyses were used to integrate the existing results and to compute the effect sizes. Twenty-seven data were elicited from 20 articles; sensitivity analysis showed that 22 statistics obtained from 17 literatures were appropriate for the present analyses. Results of meta-analyses demonstrated that maltreated children scored lower than comparison. The effect sizes were found to be significant and to be medium (d=.53, r=.26). Both physical abuse and neglect were also analyzed separately, and each effect sizes were calculated for physically abused and neglected victims. These findings suggested that child maltreatment have a deleterious effect on the intelligence of maltreated victims. The author concluded that child abuse and neglect probably exacerbate the intellectual development of maltreated children.

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