Childhood neglect

BACKGROUND: Contact with health services prior to offences committed by people with mental illness is an opportunity for intervention and prevention. This study examines the pattern and correlates of health service contact by people with severe mental illness before a serious offence. METHOD: Linkage of a cohort of 477 Forensic Patients found not guilty due to mental illness between 1990 and 2016, and statewide databases of contact with emergency departments, hospital admission and outpatient mental health services in the state of New South Wales, Australia...

BACKGROUND: While childhood adversity (CA) is known to be associated with multiple adverse outcomes, its link with dementia is an area with limited exploration and inconsistent agreement. The study aimed to examine the longitudinal associations of CA with incident all-cause dementia and to quantify the potential mediating pathways. METHODS: Data from the UK Biobank. CA, encompassing neglect and abuse, was evaluated retrospectively by an online mental health questionnaire...

Pain in adolescence can lead to the development of serious mental health issues, including suicidality. This risk may be strengthened among youth exposed to more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; abuse, neglect, household challenges). This longitudinal study examined the role of ACEs in the relationship between pain and later suicidality onset and severity among a cohort of adolescents at risk for developing mental health problems. Participants were 139 healthy youth (Mage =13.74 years, SD=1.56, 64% female) between the ages of 11-17 years, recruited based on parental history of depression or anxiety...

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with unintended pregnancies, including mistimed pregnancies (MP) and unwanted pregnancies (UWP). However, it remains unknown which cluster of ACEs (i.e., child maltreatment/household dysfunction and deprivation/threat) are associated with MP/UWP and whether years of education mediate these associations. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of the clusters of ACEs with MP and UWP, while also examining the mediating effect of education years...

IMPORTANCE: The proportion of mental disorders and burden causally attributable to childhood maltreatment is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the contribution of child maltreatment to mental health conditions in Australia, accounting for genetic and environmental confounding. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This meta-analysis involved an epidemiological assessment accounting for genetic and environmental confounding between maltreatment and mental health and 3 cross-sectional national surveys: the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) 2023, National Study of Mental Health and Well-being 2020-2022, and Australian Burden of Disease Study 2023...

We explored the intergenerational transmission effects of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and infant neglect from multiple perspectives. The study included a sample of postpartum mothers and infants ( N  = 550) from the outpatient child health care department of a tertiary hospital in Jinan, Shandong Province, China. Our investigation followed three main lines of inquiry. First, the association of overall maternal ACEs with infant neglect was estimated. Secondly, the cumulative and independent effects of maternal ACEs on infant neglect were explored using the Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire-Revised (ACEQ-R) with 14 types of ACEs...

To guide prevention and intervention efforts, the prevalence and impact of child sexual abuse (CSA) victimization among detained and incarcerated populations requires further examination, particularly with consideration of multi-type maltreatment experiences and sex-based variations. This longitudinal population-based study explores these relationships in an Australian birth cohort comprising all individuals born in Queensland in 1983 and 1984 ( n  = 82,409; 48.68% female). Data include all notified and substantiated harm(s) from child protection services (0 to 17 years), and sentences to youth detention and/or adult incarceration between ages 10 and 30...

BACKGROUND: Childhood abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) is associated with aberrant connectivity of the amygdala, a key threat-processing region. Heightened amygdala activity also predicts adult anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, as do experiences of childhood abuse. The current study explored whether amygdala resting-state functional connectivity may explain the relationship between childhood abuse and anxiety and PTSD symptoms following trauma exposure in adults...

UNLABELLED: History of childhood maltreatment (CM) is common and robustly associated with prenatal and postpartum (perinatal) depression. Given perinatal depression symptom heterogeneity, a transdiagnostic approach to measurement could enhance understanding of patterns between CM and perinatal depression. METHODS: In two independently collected samples of women receiving care at perinatal psychiatry clinics (n = 523 and n = 134), we categorized longitudinal symptoms of perinatal depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep into transdiagnostic factors derived from the Research Domain Criteria and depression literatures...

BACKGROUND: Suicidality was very high among individuals who suffered from childhood trauma. The distribution of cumulative childhood trauma among youths remains unclear, as well as the specific effects of cumulative childhood trauma on suicidality. This study attempted to explore the distribution of cumulative childhood trauma and examine the specific effects of cumulative childhood trauma on suicidality. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was employed in this study, with 117,769 college students recruited from 63 universities in Jilin Province, China...

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) represent a key risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents. However, the intervening mechanisms linking ACEs and suicidality, and whether such processes vary by gender, remain underexplored. OBJECTIVE: The present study examines whether the relationships between ACEs and the likelihood of experiencing suicidal thoughts and attempting suicide are indirect through depressive symptoms and low self-control...

Is childhood adversity associated with biological aging, and if so, does sex modify the association, and do lifestyle and mental health mediate the association? A lifespan analysis is conducted using data on 142 872 participants from the UK Biobank to address these questions. Childhood adversity is assessed through the online mental health questionnaire (2016), including physical neglect, physical abuse, emotional neglect, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and a cumulative score. Biological aging is indicated by telomere length (TL) measured from leukocyte DNA using qPCR, and the shorter TL indicates accelerated biological aging; a lifestyle score is constructed using body mass index, physical activity, drinking, smoking, and diet; mental disorder is assessed using depression, anxiety, and insomnia at the baseline survey...

BACKGROUND: Evidence overwhelmingly suggests that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is a risk factor for poor mental health outcomes. However, the specific mechanisms via which ACEs confer an increased risk of psychopathology are less well understood. OBJECTIVE: The study modelled the effect of empathy and perceived social support (PSS) on mental health outcomes in a mixed clinical and non-clinical population, within the context of exposure to ACEs. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: A total of 575 participants (comprising a treatment-receiving and community-based sample), aged 18 to 65 completed self-report measures assessing early adversity, PSS, empathy, and mental health outcomes...

BACKGROUND: There is a high prevalence of childhood maltreatment among Chinese children and adolescents, but little is known about its impact on alcohol and tobacco use trajectories and how positive school and neighborhood environments moderate the associations. The objective of this study was to assess the association between multiple forms of childhood maltreatment and longitudinal alcohol and tobacco use trajectories, and to assess the possibility that perceived connections to school and neighborhood moderate these associations...

BACKGROUND: Childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with emotional-behavioural problems. However, little is known about children's emotional-behavioural outcomes following exposure to different long-term patterns of IPV. OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to investigate the emotional-behavioural functioning of children at 10 years of age following exposure to different patterns of IPV across the first 10 years of life. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data for this study was drawn from the Mothers' and Young People's Study- a longitudinal study of 1507 first time mothers and their first born child...

BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment is a well-established transdiagnostic risk factor for suicidal ideation; however, previous studies on their association in schizophrenia have produced highly varied results. Moreover, the mechanism linking childhood maltreatment and suicide ideation remains unclear in schizophrenia. AIMS: This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the association between childhood maltreatment and suicide ideation in people with schizophrenia and tested whether insomnia mediated this relationship...

BACKGROUND: Childhood trauma exerts enduring impacts on the physical and psychological well-being of individuals in adulthood, influencing their daily functioning. This study aims to investigate the impact of childhood trauma on stress recovery in adults, concentrating on heart rate variations during acute stress exposure. METHODS: A cohort of 126 participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to elicit acute stress, with continuous heart rate (HR) monitoring for stress recovery assessment...

INTRODUCTION: Racial/ethnic differences exist in the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). However, few studies have examined racial/ethnic differences in the association between ACEs and poor mental health outcomes in young adulthood. METHODS: Data on 10 self-reported, recalled ACEs (prior to age 18), and current symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and sleep problems in early adulthood were collected from 2,020 young adults (age 20-23 years) between January-June 2021 enrolled in a Southern California prospective community-based cohort...

BACKGROUND: A mother who feels dissatisfaction with herself may resort to abusive behavior such as shaking or smothering toward their offspring. Understanding this association can inform effective prevention strategies. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the associations between maternal feelings of dissatisfaction with oneself and infant physical abuse. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The study included 434 mothers who had recently given birth in two obstetric wards in a relatively wealthy area in Tokyo, Japan...

BACKGROUND: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a severe global problem associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Previous studies have confirmed this relationship; however, there is a lack of research on the disease burden of AUD attributable to CSA. OBJECTIVE: To analyze global spatiotemporal trends and differences in the disease burden of AUD attributable to CSA and its relationship with age, sex, and the sociodemographic index (SDI). PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Public Database...