Childhood exposure to victimization is prevalent and has been shown to contribute to significant immediate and long-term psychological distress and functional impairment. Children exposed to interpersonal victimization often meet criteria for psychiatric disorders other than posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, this article summarizes research that suggests directions for broadening current diagnostic conceptualizations for victimized children, focusing on findings regarding victimization, the prevalence of a variety of psychiatric symptoms related to affect and behavior dysregulation, disturbances of consciousness and cognition, alterations in attribution and schema, and interpersonal impairment. A wide range of symptoms is common in victimized children. As a result, in the current psychiatric nosology, multiple comorbid diagnoses are necessary—but not necessarily accurate—to describe many victimized children, potentially leading to both undertreatment and overtreatment. Related findings regarding biological correlates of childhood victimization and the treatment outcome literature are also reviewed. Recommendations for future research aimed at enhancing diagnosis and treatment of victimized children are provided.

Understanding Interpersonal Trauma in Children: Why We Need a Developmentally Appropriate Trauma Diagnosis

Will reading habit influence your life? Many say yes. Reading social class and mental illness a community study is a good habit; you can develop this habit to be such interesting way. Yeah, reading habit will not only make you have any favourite activity. It will be one of guidance of your life. When reading has become a habit, you will not make it as disturbing activities or as boring activity. You can gain many benefits and importances of reading.

Social class and mental illness: a community study

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature to identify school-related outcomes associated with trauma in school-aged youth. The sample of articles (n = 83) included data on school-aged youth (pre-kindergarten to grade 12) who were 18 years or younger. Cognitive, academic, and teacher reported social-emotional-behavioral outcomes associated with traumatic event exposure and traumatic stress symptoms were examined. The findings from this systematic review further assist educators and school professionals in recognizing the potential impact of traumatic event exposure and traumatic stress symptoms on school-related functioning. Implications for future research include the need to utilize clear operational definitions of traumatic event exposure and traumatic stress symptoms to allow for aggregation of findings across studies, to conduct longitudinal studies to be conducted within the school context, and to take the critical next step of school-based trauma interventions to incorporate school-related outcomes.

School-Related Outcomes of Traumatic Event Exposure and Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Students: A Systematic Review of Research from 1990 to 2015

Memory, suggestibility, stress arousal, and trauma-related psychopathology were examined in 328 3- to 16-year-olds involved in forensic investigations of abuse and neglect. Children's memory and suggestibility were assessed for a medical examination and venipuncture. Being older and scoring higher in cognitive functioning were related to fewer inaccuracies. In addition, cortisol level and trauma symptoms in children who reported more dissociative tendencies were associated with increased memory error, whereas cortisol level and trauma symptoms were not associated with increased error for children who reported fewer dissociative tendencies. Sexual and/or physical abuse predicted greater accuracy. The study contributes important new information to scientific understanding of maltreatment, psychopathology, and eyewitness memory in children.

Maltreated Children's Memory: Accuracy, Suggestibility, and Psychopathology.

Child maltreatment exemplifies a pathogenic relational environment that confers considerable risk for maladaptation across diverse psychological and biological domains of development. Deprived of many of the experiences believed to promote adaptive functioning across the life span, maltreated children traverse a probabilistic pathway characterized by an increased likelihood for compromised resolution of stage-salient developmental tasks. Because the maltreating home represents such a dramatic violation of the average expectable environment, research on child maltreatment informs developmental theory by elucidating the conditions necessary for normal development and healthy adaptation. Moreover, research on child maltreatment enhances clinical, legal, and policy decisions aimed to promote children’s safety and well-being.

A developmental psychopathology perspective on child maltreatment.

This study examined intellectual and memory functioning in a sample of sexually abused children compared to demographically and age-matched controls. The severity of abuse and other pertinent factors were also examined in relation to cognitive performance. Elevated levels of psychopathology were present in the abused children, as well as diminished performance on tasks influenced by attention/concentration. However, after controlling for differences in IQ and socioeconomic status (SES), significant differences in memory function were not found. Results are discussed in the context of stress effects on cognition and the potential resiliency of cognitive function in children undergoing treatment for sexual abuse.

Corinna Porter

Papers

Neurobehavioral sequelae of child sexual abuse