NC Med J September/October 2005, Volume 66, Number 5 orking with the media to mobilize the public in efforts to prevent child maltreatment has long been regarded as a vital component of a comprehensive child maltreatment prevention system. Public awareness activities play an important role in that they have the potential to reach diverse audiences— parents, professionals, community members—who ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationships of demographic, maltreatment, neurostructural and neuropsychological measures with total posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. METHODS Participants included 216 children with maltreatment histories (N = 49), maltreatment and PTSD (N = 49), or no maltreatment (N = 118). Participants received diagnostic interviews, brain imaging, and neuropsycholo...

BACKGROUND The occurrence of multiple births has been recognized as a risk factor for child maltreatment. However, few population-based studies have examined the relationship between multiple births and child maltreatment. This study aimed to evaluate the degree of risk of child maltreatment among singletons and multiple births in Japan and to identify factors associated with increased risk. ...

OBJECTIVE The study objective was to determine the nature and prevalence of childhood maltreatment experiences among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults and to compare findings to those obtained from similar heterosexual adults. METHOD Data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), which measured both childhood experiences with parental emotional and physical...

PURPOSE This study had two aims: (1) to determine the prevalence of five categories of retrospectively reported childhood maltreatment in an adult community sample and (2) to examine relationships between three theoretically and practically chosen demographic variables and childhood maltreatment. METHOD Participants were a representative sample of 967 adult men and women in the metropolitan M...

Maltreatment during childhood is a major risk factor for anxiety and depression, which are major public health problems. However, the underlying brain mechanism linking maltreatment and internalizing disorders remains poorly understood. Maltreatment may alter the activation of fear circuitry, but little is known about its impact on the connectivity of this circuitry in adolescence and whether s...

Child maltreatment is a risk for graduates of the newborn intensive care unit (NICU). Infants represent the highest child maltreatment victimization group and parents, particularly mothers, are significantly represented as perpetrators. The challenges of a NICU environment along with the care burdens associated with NICU infants increase child maltreatment risks. Medical providers can reduce th...

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system are at high risk for mental health problems, particularly depression. Furthermore, these youth often present with a history of childhood maltreatment. Despite research consistently demonstrating a link between childhood maltreatment and depression, our understanding of intervening factors of this relationship remains limited. This study examined imp...

Childhood emotional maltreatment has been associated with a higher risk for maltreating one's own offspring. In the current study, we explored a possible role of oxytocin in mediating the association between childhood emotional maltreatment and participants' interpretation of infant facial expressions. Oxytocin levels were measured in 102 female participants using saliva samples. They rated the...

IMPORTANCE Child maltreatment is a risk factor for poor health throughout the life course. Existing estimates of the proportion of the US population maltreated during childhood are based on retrospective self-reports. Records of officially confirmed maltreatment have been used to produce annual rather than cumulative counts of maltreated individuals. OBJECTIVE To estimate the proportion of US...