This study is to examine to what extent abuse experience affects school adjustment of children and to identify mediating effects of resilience between abuse experience and school adjustment. The study redefined abuse experience, resilience, and school adjustment from a literature review. Abuse experience of children was classified into witness and direct maltreatment. Resilience was classified into internal resilience (self-esteem and trust) and relational resilience (attachment to teacher and attachment to friend). School adjustment was operationalized as academic achievement and frequency of deviance. The study utilized the Korea Youth Panel Survey data of 2009.
Results show that 9.4% of children have witnessed their parents\' verbal abuse and 5.5% of them have experienced direct physical abuse. Direct physical abuse negatively affected academic performance and deviance of children. Abuse experience (witness of parents\' verbal abuse) also negatively affected self-esteem, self-trust, and attachment to friend. Self-esteem, trust, and attachment to friend were identified as mediators in the process of abuse experience and deviance of children.
Key words:abuse experience, school adjustment, resilience, mediating effects.