CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 414Child Abuse and TraumaChild Welfare and AdoptionMilitary, Security, and Education Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

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

Open access
Danese, Andrea, Widom, Cathy Spatz·2020·Nature Human Behaviour
DOI 10.1038/s41562-020-0880-3
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

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.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41562-020-0880-3

Cites

0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 41

  1. Susser, E. & Widom, C. S. Still searching for lost truths about the bitter sorrows of childhood. Schizophr. Bull. 38, 672–675 (2012). · DOI
  2. Widom, C. S. The cycle of violence. Science 244, 160–166 (1989). · DOI · Paper page
  3. Widom, C. S., Czaja, S. J. & DuMont, K. A. Intergenerational transmission of child abuse and neglect: real or detection bias? Science 347, 1480–1485 (2015). · DOI
  4. Caspi, A. et al. The p factor: one general psychopathology factor in the structure of psychiatric disorders? Clin. Psychol. Sci. 2, 119–137 (2014). · DOI · Paper page
  5. Dalgleish, T. & Werner-Seidler, A. Disruptions in autobiographical memory processing in depression and the emergence of memory therapeutics. Trends Cogn. Sci. 18, 596–604 (2014). · DOI
  6. Monroe, S. M. Modern approaches to conceptualizing and measuring human life stress. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 4, 33–52 (2008). · DOI
  7. Widom, C. S., Weiler, B. L. & Cottler, L. B. Childhood victimization and drug abuse: a comparison of prospective and retrospective findings. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 67, 867–880 (1999). · DOI
  8. Gilbert, R. et al. Burden and consequences of child maltreatment in high-income countries. Lancet 373, 68–81 (2009). · DOI · Paper page
  9. Nanni, V., Uher, R. & Danese, A. Childhood maltreatment predicts unfavorable course of illness and treatment outcome in depression: a meta-analysis. Am. J. Psychiatry 169, 141–151 (2012). · DOI · Paper page
  10. Agnew-Blais, J. & Danese, A. Childhood maltreatment and unfavourable clinical outcomes in bipolar disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry 3, 342–349 (2016). · DOI
  11. Macmillan, H. L. et al. Interventions to prevent child maltreatment and associated impairment. Lancet 373, 250–266 (2009). · DOI · Paper page
  12. McGee, R. A., Wolfe, D. A., Yuen, S. A., Wilson, S. K. & Carnochan, J. The measurement of maltreatment: a comparison of approaches. Child Abuse Negl. 19, 233–249 (1995). · DOI
  13. Shaffer, A., Huston, L. & Egeland, B. Identification of child maltreatment using prospective and self-report methodologies: a comparison of maltreatment incidence and relation to later psychopathology. Child Abuse Negl. 32, 682–692 (2008). · DOI
  14. Negriff, S., Schneiderman, J. U. & Trickett, P. K. Concordance between self-reported childhood maltreatment versus case record reviews for child welfare-affiliated adolescents. Child Maltreatment 22, 34–44 (2017). · DOI
  15. Reuben, A. et al. Lest we forget: comparing retrospective and prospective assessments of adverse childhood experiences in the prediction of adult health. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 57, 1103–1112 (2016). · DOI · Paper page
  16. Newbury, J. B. et al. Measuring childhood maltreatment to predict early-adult psychopathology: comparison of prospective informant-reports and retrospective self-reports. J. Psychiatr. Res. 96, 57–64 (2018). · DOI · Paper page
  17. Lazarus, R. S. & Folkman, S. Stress, Appraisal, and Coping (Springer-Verlag, 1984).
  18. Meiser-Stedman, R., Dalgleish, T., Glucksman, E., Yule, W. & Smith, P. Maladaptive cognitive appraisals mediate the evolution of posttraumatic stress reactions: a 6-month follow-up of child and adolescent assault and motor vehicle accident survivors. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 118, 778–787 (2009). · DOI
  19. Danese, A. & McEwen, B. S. Adverse childhood experiences, allostasis, allostatic load, and age-related disease. Physiol. Behav. 106, 29–39 (2012). · DOI · Paper page
  20. Chen, Y. & Baram, T. Z. Toward understanding how early-life stress reprograms cognitive and emotional brain networks. Neuropsychopharmacology 41, 197–206 (2016). · DOI · Paper page
  21. Loftus, E. Our changeable memories: legal and practical implications. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 4, 231–234 (2003). · DOI
  22. Schacter, D. L. & Slotnick, S. D. The cognitive neuroscience of memory distortion. Neuron 44, 149–160 (2004). · DOI
  23. Danese, A. Annual Research Review: Rethinking childhood trauma—new research directions for measurement, study design and analytical strategies. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 61, 236–250 (2020). · DOI
  24. Widom, C. S., Fisher, J. H., Nagin, D. S. & Piquero, A. R. A prospective examination of criminal career trajectories in abused and neglected males and females followed up into middle adulthood. J. Quant. Criminol. 34, 831–852 (2018). · DOI
  25. Widom, C. S. Child abuse, neglect, and adult behaviour. Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 59, 355–367 (1989). · DOI
  26. Nikulina, V. & Widom, C. S. Higher levels of intelligence and executive functioning protect maltreated children against adult arrests: a prospective study. Child Maltreatment 24, 3–16 (2019). · DOI
  27. Watt, N. F. Longitudinal changes in the social behavior of children hospitalized for schizophrenia as adults. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 155, 42–54 (1972). · DOI
  28. Leventhal, J. M. Research strategies and methodologic standards in studies of risk factors for child abuse. Child Abuse Negl. 6, 113–123 (1982). · DOI
  29. Schulsinger, F., Mednick, S. A. & Knop, J. Longitudinal Research: Methods and Uses in Behavioral Sciences (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1981). · DOI
  30. Widom, C. S., DuMont, K. & Czaja, S. J. A prospective investigation of major depressive disorder and comorbidity in abused and neglected children grown up. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 64, 49–56 (2007). · DOI · Paper page
  31. Lansford, J. E. et al. A 12-year prospective study of the long-term effects of early child physical maltreatment on psychological, behavioral, and academic problems in adolescence. Arch. Pediatr. Adolesc. Med. 156, 824–830 (2002). · DOI · Paper page
  32. Thornberry, T. P., Knight, K. E. & Lovegrove, P. J. Does maltreatment beget maltreatment? A systematic review of the intergenerational literature. Trauma Violence Abuse 13, 135–152 (2012). · DOI · Paper page
  33. Finkelhor, D. Sexually Victimized Children (Free Press, 1979).
  34. Finkelhor, D. Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse (Sage Publications, 1986). · DOI
  35. Russell, D. E. The incidence and prevalence of intrafamilial and extrafamilial sexual abuse of female children. Child Abuse Negl. 7, 133–146 (1983). · DOI
  36. Widom, C. S. & Morris, S. Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood victimization: Part II. Childhood sexual abuse. Psychol. Assess. 9, 34–46 (1997). · DOI
  37. Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Finkelhor, D., Moore, D. W. & Runyan, D. Identification of child maltreatment with the parent–child conflict tactics scales: development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents. Child Abuse Negl. 22, 249–270 (1998). · DOI
  38. Widom, C. S. & Shepard, R. L. Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood victimization: Part I. Childhood physical abuse. Psychol. Assess. 8, 412–421 (1996). · DOI
  39. American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-III-R 3rd edn, revised (American Psychiatric Press, 1987).
  40. Eaton, W. W., Regier, D. A., Locke, B. Z. & Taube, C. A. The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. Public Health Rep. 96, 319–325 (1981).
  41. Helzer, J. E. et al. A comparison of clinical and diagnostic interview schedule diagnoses: physician reexamination of lay-interviewed cases in the general population. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 42, 657–666 (1985). · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 414

Metadata

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
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
Licence
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

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review