AUTHOR : 이선숙,박종효
INFORMATION : page. 59~86 / 2017 Vol.24 No.2
The study explores the effects of child maltreatment experiences on school engagement and mental health (i.e. depression/anxiety): specifically, it examines whether forgiveness has moderating effects on the relationship between experiences of child maltreatment in the past and levels of school engagement and depression/anxiety in the present. In this study, 530 students at a specialized vocational high school in Seoul were administered a series of psychological measures regarding past child maltreatment experiences, school engagement, depression/anxiety and forgiveness. The t-test results showed that students with experiences of child maltreatment were more likely to experience more severe forms of depression/anxiety as well as exhibited lower levels of engagement in schools than students who had not such experiences. The results of the structural equation modeling analyses confirmed the moderating effect of forgiveness. Among students with child maltreatment experiences, those with higher levels of forgiveness showed higher levels of school engagement and lower degree of depression/anxiety than those with lower levels of forgiveness. The study concludes with the implication of this study on educating students with past experiences of child maltreatment.