In this issue of Pediatrics, Dr. Pinto Pereira and colleagues 1 describe important associations between maltreatment experiences in childhood and work–life circumstances in adulthood. The strength of this work lies in a unique British birth cohort followed over 50 years. Using exposure variables collected both prospectively (child neglect) and retrospectively (child abuse and emotional neglect)...

Objectives: One of the greatest methodological problems in the study of childhood maltreatment is thediscrepancy inmethodsbywhichcasesof childmaltreatmentare identified. The current study compared incidents of maltreatment identified prospectively, retrospectively, or through a combination of both methods. Method: Within a cohort of 170 participants followed from birth to age 19, incidents of m...

BACKGROUND Experiencing abuse during childhood affects the psychological well-being of individuals throughout their lives and may even influence their offspring by enhancing the likelihood of an intergenerational transmission of violence. Understanding the effects of childhood maltreatment on child-rearing practices and intimate partner violence might be of particular importance to overcome the...

This study examined abuse and trauma exposure as it predicted identity problems, affect dysregulation, and relational disturbance in 620 individuals from the general population. Multivariate analyses indicated that maternal (but not paternal) emotional abuse was uniquely associated with elevations on all 7 scales of the Inventory of Altered Self-Capacities (IASC): Interpersonal Conflicts, Ideal...

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at heightened risk for maltreatment and later substance use disorders (SUDs). We investigated the relationship of childhood maltreatment and other risk factors to SUDs among adolescents diagnosed with ADHD in childhood. Eighty adolescents diagnosed with ADHD when they were 7 to 11 years old were screened for histories of childhoo...

BACKGROUND Prior research reports stronger associations between childhood maltreatment and adult psychopathology when maltreatment is assessed retrospectively compared with prospectively, casting doubt on the mental health risk conferred by maltreatment and on the validity of retrospective reports. AIMS To investigate associations of psychopathology with prospective v. retrospective maltreatm...

OBJECTIVE This study considers the long-term health consequences of child maltreatment. Distinct from previous research, we examine the effects of maltreatment in the context of more general parental evaluations. METHOD Analyses used retrospective and current data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study. RESULTS A considerable proportion of middle- and older-age adul...

Childhood maltreatment is strongly associated with depression, which is characterized by reduced reactivity to reward. Identifying factors that mitigate risk for depression in maltreated children is important for understanding etiological links between maltreatment and depression as well as improving early intervention and prevention. We examine whether high reward reactivity at behavioral and ...

BACKGROUND Over the past decades, increased knowledge about childhood abuse and trauma have prompted changes in child welfare policy, and practice that may have affected the out-of-home (OOH) care population. However, little is known about recent national trends in child maltreatment, OOH placement, or characteristics of children in OOH care. The objective of this study was to examine trends in...