Childhood maltreatment is an established risk factor for varying configurations of psychological problems in emerging adulthood. The current study tested associations between childhood maltreatment, cortisol reactivity, and current mental health symptoms in emerging adulthood. Eighty-eight participants (aged 18-22) completed measures of childhood maltreatment and current internalizing and exter...

The current study examined the unique relations of childhood and adolescent maltreatment (emotional, physical, and sexual) with DSM-III-R personality disorder (PD) dimensions in a sample of undergraduates. The results suggested that reported levels of childhood sexual maltreatment were uniquely related to six of the 11 PD dimensions examined. In contrast, reported levels of adolescent emotional...

This study examined the hypothesis that depressed adolescents with a history of childhood maltreatment will show greater cortisol reactivity to psychological stress challenge than those without, and this relation will be moderated by level of depression severity. Seventy-one adolescents were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test. Salivary cortisol was assessed at baseline, immediately before ...

OBJECTIVE Maternal maltreatment history and current parenting stress are associated with parenting difficulties. However, researchers have not investigated the mechanism by which these variables are interlinked. We hypothesized that parenting stress mediates the relation between history of maltreatment and parenting behavior. METHODS We assessed a community sample of 291 mothers as they inter...

One of the conceptual and definitional issues that has plagued the study of child maltreatment is the relationship between intention and outcome. This paper flows from the finding that the common developmentally destructive element in all forms of child maltreatment is psychological maltreatment, that the study of child abuse and neglect is the study of child maltreatment in a fundamental way. ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Children with disabilities are at an increased risk for maltreatment. However, the risk of maltreatment is unknown for children with specific types of birth defects. This study was conducted to determine whether the risk and predictors of maltreatment differ between children with and without 3 birth defects: Down syndrome, cleft lip with/without cleft palate, and spina...

BACKGROUND Childhood maltreatment has been found to play a crucial role in the development of psychiatric disorders. However, whether childhood maltreatment is associated with structural brain changes described for major depressive disorder (MDD) is still a matter of debate. The aim of this study was to investigate whether patients with MDD and a history of childhood maltreatment display more s...

CONTEXT Evidence for an association between child maltreatment and later psychopathology heavily relies on retrospective reports of maltreatment. The few studies using prospective ascertainment of child maltreatment show weaker associations, raising the possibility that it is not maltreatment, but rather the memory of maltreatment, that raises the risk of later mental disorders. OBJECTIVES To...

OBJECTIVE To present key findings from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Maltreatment (CIS) in sufficient detail to provide a basis for international comparisons in terms of forms and severity of maltreatment and the age and sex of victims. METHOD A survey conducted in a random sample of 51 child welfare service areas across Canada tracked child maltreatment investigations conduc...

BACKGROUND Childhood maltreatment is a key risk factor for maladjustment and psychopathology. Although maltreated youth are more likely to experience community violence, both forms of adversity are generally examined separately. Consequently, little is known about the unique and interactive effects that characterize maltreatment and community violence exposure (CVE) on mental health. METHODS ...