BACKGROUND Studies have provided evidence that both childhood maltreatment and depressive disorders are associated with shortened telomere lengths. However, as childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for depression, it remains unclear whether this may be driving shortened telomere lengths observed amongst depressed patients. Furthermore, it's unclear if the effects of maltreatment on telomere l...

OBJECTIVES The current study investigates the moderating effect of perceived social support on associations between child maltreatment severity and adult trauma symptoms. We extend the existing literature by examining the roles of severity of multiple maltreatment types (i.e., sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; physical and emotional neglect) and gender in this process. METHODS The sample...

INTRODUCTION It is well established that childhood maltreatment has a detrimental impact on the brain, particularly the hippocampus. However, the hippocampus is a functionally and structurally heterogeneous region, and little is known about how maltreatment might affect hippocampal subregion development throughout important periods of plasticity. This study investigated whether childhood maltre...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence of four types of childhood maltreatment in Denmark while taking into considerations how each of the types of maltreatment vary as a function of gender or child-protection status. METHODS Data were collected from a Danish national study conducted by The Danish National Centre for Social Research in 2008 and 2009. The study used a stratified random probabil...

BACKGROUND During childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) negative attitudes are provided to the child (e.g., "you are worthless"). These negative attitudes may result in emotion inhibition strategies in order to avoid thinking of memories of CEM, such as thought suppression. However, thought suppression may paradoxically enhance occurrences (i.e., intrusions) of these memories, which may occur ...

Childhood maltreatment, including physical and sexual abuse as well as child neglect, is highly prevalent with recent estimates from the Department of Health & Human Services (Gaudiosi, 2009) reporting over 750,000 documented cases annually in the United States. While the link between maltreatment and deleterious psychological and social functioning is well established, there has been increasin...

The relationship between psychological maltreatment in childhood and adult wellbeing has previously been established via the statistical modelling of psychometric data. This study examines a set of statistical data regarding abuse alongside personal accounts. One hundred and sixty five participants completed several psychometric scales, including a measure of childhood emotional abuse. Several ...

Child maltreatment is a global public health problem of epidemic proportions [1]. Internationally, the prevalence is striking, with reports suggesting that 25%e50% of children report being physically abused [1]. The annual estimates of child maltreatment in the developed world are highest in the United States: 3.4 million referrals of child abuse involved 6.2 million children in 2011 [2]. It is...

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Child neglect Adolescent parenting History of childhood maltreatment Children born to the youngest mothers are at substantial risk for neglect. Neglect is multiply determined, but a maternal childhood history of maltreatment is an especially influential parenting determinant. This study investigated the etiology of neglect among very young mothers (b 17 years; n ...

While previous research has suggested that adults with a history of childhood sexual abuse may be more prone to produce false memories, little is known about the consequences of childhood neglect on basic memory processes. For this reason, the authors investigated how a group of women with a history of childhood emotional neglect (CEN) and diagnosed with recurrent Major Depressive Disorder (MDD...