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Objective and subjective experiences of child maltreatment and their relationships with psychopathology

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Danese, Andrea, Widom, Cathy Spatz·2020·Nature Human Behaviour

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Abstract

Does psychopathology develop as a function of the objective or subjective experience of childhood maltreatment? To address this question, we studied a unique cohort of 1,196 children with both objective, court-documented evidence of maltreatment and subjective reports of their childhood maltreatment histories made once they reached adulthood, along with extensive psychiatric assessment. We found that, even for severe cases of childhood maltreatment identified through court records, risk of psychopathology linked to objective measures was minimal in the absence of subjective reports. In contrast, risk of psychopathology linked to subjective reports of childhood maltreatment was high, whether or not the reports were consistent with objective measures. These findings have important implications for how we study the mechanisms through which child maltreatment affects mental health and how we prevent or treat maltreatment-related psychopathology. Interventions for psychopathology associated with childhood maltreatment can benefit from deeper understanding of the subjective experience.

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Namlı, Z., Tamam, L., Demirkol, M. E., Karaytuğ, M. O., Yeşiloğlu, C., Demirtaş, S. Ç., & Uğur, K. (2026) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm15062364
“…by psychopathology-related alterations in autobiographical memory, and the subjective meaning attributed to traumatic experiences may change over time and be shaped by subsequent life events [68], which can complicate the understanding of how these experiences impact current mental health outcomes.”
Focus on and venting of emotion mediate the pathway from maternal child abuse to adulthood depression severity.
Tan, J. Y., Ziobrowski, H., & Zainal, N. H. H. (2026) · International Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2026.107926
“Moreover, subjective reports of maltreatment have been found to better predict psychopathology than objective reports (Danese & Widom, 2020).”
Understanding the developmental impact of psychological maltreatment through the lens of the dimensional model of adversity and psychopathology
Wallimann, M. S., Beck, K., & Lätsch, D. (2026) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008066.2026.2616980
“Since we used cross-sectional and retrospective self-report assessments to measure PA and PN, we cannot preclude certain biases, such as the possibility that adolescents assessed their parents’ behaviour depending on their current emotional state and well-being (Danese & Widom, 2020).”
Exploring causal relationships between child maltreatment and child internalising and externalising behavioural problems: A bidirectional mendelian randomization study.
Han, Q., Pang, M. Y. C., & She, R. (2025) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2025.120820
A psychometric study of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) in a Southeast Asian context
Halim, M. R. T. A., Nor, S. A. M., Hassan, H., Ibrahim, N., & Idris, F. (2025) · Multidisciplinary Reviews · doi:10.31893/multirev.2026288
“Conditions such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse diminish emotional availability, fostering environments of neglect (Danese & Widom, 2020).”
Adverse childhood experiences and multimorbidity of internalising and cardiometabolic conditions in mid to older agePreprint
Benger, L., Holmans, P., Owen, M. J., Mon-Williams, M. A., Rice, F. J., Payne, R., Katzourou, I. K., & van den Bree, M. B. M. (2025) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2025.10.27.25338876
“…there are differences in associations of ACEs and psychopathology depending on whether the ACE is assessed retrospectively or prospectively, which highlights that subjective memory is potentially important in explaining associations between ACEs and IC in this study (Danese & Widom, 2020).”
From childhood shadows to adult aches: a prospective cohort study on adverse childhood experiences, depressive symptoms, and incident arthritis in middle-aged and older Chinese adults
Lu, B.-W., Li, J.-C., Wen, M.-T., Guo, Y.-Q., & Li, G. (2025) · European Journal of Medical Research · doi:10.1186/s40001-025-03226-7
“Other studies have shown that ACEs are linked to depressive symptoms in later life [32, 33].”
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Wu, Y., Goodman, G. S., Goldfarb, D., Hartman, D. T., Qin, J., & Eisen, M. L. (2025) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107726
Childhood Adversity and Cardiovascular Disease; Current Knowledge and Future Directions
Suglia, S. F. (2025) · Current Cardiology Reports · doi:10.1007/s11886-025-02300-0
“However, both prospective and retrospective assessments of ACEs have limitations and given the informant and mode of assessment differs with time of assess - ment, its believed that both, retrospective and prospective measures, are informative of early childhood experiences [22].”
Belastende Kindheitserfahrungen und potenziell traumatische Lebensereignisse bei ehemals fremdplatzierten jungen Erwachsenen
Gurri, L., Beck, K., d’Huart, D., Seker, S., Leiting, M., Boonmann, C., Jenkel, N., Fegert, J. M., Clemens, V., Schmeck, K., et al. (2025) · Kindheit und Entwicklung · doi:10.1026/0942-5403/a000493
Psychological factors mediate the relationship between trauma exposure and pain intensity in women with endometriosis: a cross-sectional study
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“The mediation role of psychological factors between trauma exposure and pain perception highlights the importance of the individual and subjective response to the trauma rather than the objective trauma exposure itself (Danese et al., 2020).”
Childhood Maltreatment and Psychological Resilience of University Student Emerging Adults: The Promotive and Protective Roles of Positive Childhood Experiences
Bayar, Ö., & Doğan, T. (2025) · Emerging Adulthood · doi:10.1177/21676968251376388
“…evidence of mal-treatment experiences, self-reported maltreatment experiences predict psychopathological symptoms more strongly than legally reported experiences (Danese & Widom, 2020), as court-con ﬁ rmed cases represent only severe incidents with low reporting rates (Sedlak & Broadhurst, 1996).”
Maltreatment effects on cognitive control functional connectivity across adolescence: Prospective links to young adult mental health
Lindenmuth, M., Chen, Y., Lee, T., Lee, J., Ollendick, T. H., Casas, B. R., & Kim‐Spoon, J. (2025) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579425100643
“Research suggests that retrospective self-reports of maltreatment are verifiable (Chu et al., 1999) and are associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes regardless of concordance with official records (Danese & Widom, 2022; Negriff et al., 2017).”
Perceived life burdens of early maltreatment and complex and severe depression: Using the early maltreatment & caring experiences questionnaire in clinical practice
Martínez, P., de Medina, D. D., Chacón, M. V., Cáceres, C., Sánchez, E., Alegría, M., & Gloger, S. (2025) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107682 · Cited by 1
Socio-contextual considerations in child adversities and cardiovascular disease research.
Suglia, S. (2025) · European Journal of Preventive Cardiology · doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf442
Direct and indirect associations of childhood adversities with functional impairment and life stress among military personnel
Campbell-Sills, L., Edwards, E. R., Strizver, S. D., Choi, K. W., Kautz, J. D., Papini, S., Naifeh, J. A., Aliaga, P. A., Lester, P. B., Kessler, R. C., et al. (2025) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291725101189
“Such findings align with other longitudinal studies highlighting the detrimental consequences of ACEs (Afifi et al., 2007; Albott, Forbes, & Anker, 2018; Danese & Widom, 2020, 2023).”
Diabetes-related distress and psychological burden in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes – the role of child maltreatment, personality functioning, and epistemic trust: findings from a German clinical inpatient sample
Zara, S., Ullrich, I. C., Leveling, A. M., Saretzki, F. G. G., Schmitz, J., Eckhard, M., Kruse, J., & Kampling, H. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1608601
Single-item patient-rated helpfulness and improvement as an alternative to standardized questionnaires for establishing anxiety and depression treatment efficacy.
Sewerynek, P., Wagner, C., McGregor, T., Skelton, M., & Eley, T. C. (2025) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/pas0001390
Risks Associated with Recent Self-Harm in Preadolescent and Adolescent Youth: Parent-Report
McGillivray, L., Wong, Q., Gan, D. Z. Q., Rheinberger, D., Baffsky, R., & Torok, M. (2025) · Archives of Suicide Research · doi:10.1080/13811118.2025.2495970
“…the effects of childhood adversity on psychopathology are primarily driven by a person’s subjective experience, where objective measures [e.g., court documents (Danese & Widom, 2020), peer-report (Bouman et al., 2012)] have null or minimal associations with psychopathology (Francis et al., 2023).”
The effect of mortality salience and early-life maternal care on neuroendocrine, autonomic, and psychological stress responses
Bentele, U. U., Strobel, P., Meier, M., Benz, A., Gaertner, R. J., Klink, E. S. C., Denk, B., Dimitroff, S. J., Unternäehrer, E., & Pruessner, J. C. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-85380-w · Cited by 2
“In line, it was found that the subjective experience of adversity (e.g., as measured by self-report) rather than the pure objective exposure to it (e.g., official records) confers an increased health risk 48 .”
Interactions of the CSF3R polymorphism and early stress on future orientation: evidence for the differential model of stress-related growth
Gan, Y., Wang, L., Chen, Y., Zheng, L., Wu, X., Chen, G., & Hu, Y. (2024) · Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences · doi:10.1017/s2045796024000581 · Cited by 2
“Danese and Widom (2020) examined a unique cohort of 1196 children with both objective, court-recorded evidence of abuse and their subjective reports of their childhood abuse in adulthood.”
Early Life Stress and Body-Mass Index Modulate Brain Connectivity in Alcohol Use Disorder
Agarwal, K., Joseph, P. V., Zhang, R., Schwandt, M., Ramchandani, V., Diazgranados, N., Goldman, D., & Momenan, R. (2023) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-3150110/v1
Supplementary data analyses for the associations of child maltreatment and diabetes in adulthood and the mediating effect of personality functioning
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Identification of probable child maltreatment using prospectively recorded information between 5 months and 17 years in a longitudinal cohort of Canadian childrenPreprint
Scardera, S., Langevin, R., Collin-Vézina, D., Cabana, M. C., Pereira, S. P. P., Côté, S., Ouellet-Morin, I., & Geoffroy, M. (2023) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2023.04.05.23288127
“Despite strong evidence supporting the harmful consequences of abuse and neglect on later functioning, the field continues to face its biggest methodological challenge: the very measurement of child maltreatment (Danese & Widom, 2020; Shaffer et al., 2008).”
Background
[25 Years of TraumaTherapy with Children and Adolescents ‒ a Personal-Professional Review].
Hensel, T. (2023) · Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie · doi:10.13109/prkk.2023.72.2.85
Child Maltreatment and Inflammatory Response to Mental Stress Among Adults Who Have Survived a Myocardial Infarction
Suglia, S. F., Hardy, S. T., Cammack, A. L., Kim, Y. J., Pearce, B. D., Shah, A. J., Sullivan, S. M., Wittbrodt, M. T., Bremner, J. D., & Vaccarino, V. (2022) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0000000000001114 · Cited by 2
“However, retrospective reports of maltreatment have been associated with risk of psychopathology in adulthood even in the absence of reports of child maltreatment assessed in childhood (62).”
Background
A multivariate genetic analysis of environmental sensitivity, anxiety sensitivity and reported life events in adolescents
Peel, A., Oginni, O., Assary, E., Krebs, G., Lockhart, C., McGregor, T., Palaiologou, E., Ronald, A., Danese, A., & Eley, T. (2022) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2022.05.24.22275523
“The finding that sensitivity biases are among the heritable factors that comprise the genetic component of life events is consistent with growing evidence that the subjective perception of the environment plays an important role in its impact on the individual (Danese & Widom, 2020).”
ResultSelf-citation
How Routinely Assessed Biomarkers Can Be Utilized To Identify Individuals With A High Disease Burden: A Bioinformatics Approach Towards Predictive, Preventive And Personalised (3P) Medicine
Bertele, N., Karabatsiakis, A., Buss, C., & Talmon, A. (2021) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-813085/v1
Untangling Potential Links between Childhood Trauma and the Psychological Response to the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Prospective Study Testing Multiple MediationPreprint
Rek, S., Reinhard, M. A., Bühner, M., Freeman, D., Adorjan, K., Falkai, P., & Padberg, F. (2021) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-742177/v1
COVID-19 patient accounts of illness severity, treatments and lasting symptoms
Thomason, M., Werchan, D. M., & Hendrix, C. L. (2021) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2021.05.26.21257743
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Implications of Perceived Stress, Anxiety, and Cortisol Among Women in PakistanPreprint
Ikram, N., Frost, A., LeMasters, K., Hagaman, A., Baranov, V., Gallis, J., Sikander, S., Scherer, E., & Maselko, J. (2021) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-403429/v1
References
Liddon, L., & Barry, J. A. (2021) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781119685340.biblio
Kaleidoscope
Tracy, D., Joyce, D., Albertson, D. N., & Shergill, S. (2020) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.2020.132

Authors: Danese, A., & Widom, C. S.
Affiliations: King's College London (GB)
The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
Corresponding author: Danese, Andrea
Widom, Cathy Spatz
ORCID: Danese, Andrea
Widom, Cathy Spatz
Venue: Nature Human Behaviour
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 2020-05-18
Volume: 4
Issue: 8
Pages: 811-818
ISSN: 2397-3374 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0880-3
OpenAlex: W3024217604
Cited by: 414
References: 0
Citations by year: 2026: 50 · 2025: 68 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 72 · 2022: 68 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 18
FWCI: 22.42
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
kclpure.kcl.ac.uk
Licence: other-oa
www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/text-and-data-mining (tdm)
www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/text-and-data-mining (vor)
Locations: Nature Human Behaviour (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders: RCUK | Medical Research Council (P005918)
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (MH49467, MH58386)
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD40774)
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (AG058683)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Child Welfare and Adoption
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Military, Security, and Education Studies
Keywords: child abuse, psychopathology, subjective experience, objective measures, court records, retrospective recall, childhood trauma, mental health
MeSH terms: Adolescent, Adult, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Psychopathology, Case-Control Studies, Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, Young Adult

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Objective and subjective experiences of child maltreatment and their relationships with psychopathology

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