Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a Special Issue on child abuse. Child abuse is highly prevalent, and identifying childhood maltreatment as a major public health problem.

Background and history of the topic:

Epidemiological data suggest global prevalence rates of up to 20% for childhood sexual abuse and even higher rates of up to 23% for childhood physical abuse. So far, research has consistently demonstrated that maltreated children show higher rates of a broad range of behavioural, psychological, and physical problems, persisting into adulthood and, thereby, potentially affecting the victim’s children. Its consequences range from an increased risk for cardiovascular dysfunction to impaired psychosocial function and related psychological disorders throughout life.

Some authors have stressed the importance of parental psychopathology, in particular maternal depression and PTSD or certain psychosocial factors, such as social support, poverty, or substance abuse when determining the risk of abuse.

In the last 20 years, a growing body of research started to suggest that child abuse not only causes considerable and longstanding complications for the person concerned, but may provoke intergenerational effects by acting as a risk factor for mental health in the offspring. In general, neurobiology as well as physiology has been described as vastly altered in victims of childhood abuse. Generally, a considerable number of studies have pointed out the important role of childhood adversities (CA), such as physical and sexual abuse, neglect, parental loss, or family conflict in the development of psychopathology in adulthood, emphasizing the need to consider CA as an influential factor in models examining psychopathological development.

Not only are victims of childhood abuse themselves at risk for maladaptive development—childhood maltreatment appears to have an impact on the next generation as well. Three-generational studies revealed that approximately 50% of abused parents transmit this history of abuse to their offspring 

On another important note, children of mothers experiencing child abuse were shown to have deficits in their social-emotional development and to be at an elevated risk for emotional and behavioural problems that are considered precursors of ODD and affective disorders or other psychiatric disturbances.

Aim  [*] Aim and scope of the Special Issue:

A focus on possible pathways linking child abuse and child mental illness includes neurobiological mechanisms or genetic influences and gene-environment interactions. In general, victims of chronic maltreatment, placement into foster care, or institutional deprivation should be in the central spotlight of research on the different forms of child abuse. Regarding its frequency, emotional abuse still seems to be understudied and will be an important issue. Additionally, consequences of potentially altered HPA-axis-functioning in HoA-victims is a subject of interest in this Special Issue.    Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to shed light on functioning, influential factors, developmental pathways and, ultimately, consequences for the developing child. Intergenerational transmission of abuse also is a vastly understudied subject within the scope of this Special Issue.

 [*] Cutting-edge research:

Recent evidence has indicated a deteriorating effect of child abuse on the ability to regulate emotions and tolerate stress and tension. Developmental trauma disorders with the ransdiagnostic characteristics of emotional dysregulation are a highly innovative construct in need of scientific elucidation. 

Endeavours towards prevention have focused on the intergenerational cycle of abuse, i.e., the possibility that experiences of childhood abuse could interfere with later parenting behaviour, perception of own parenting abilities, as well as perception of the child. Mothers who were victims of physical and sexual abuse in their own childhood have been shown to use physically harsher parenting practices and to have “black and white” or negative perceptions of themselves as a parent, thereby revealing a target for potential prevention efforts.

Other cutting-edge targets are factors contributing to emotional abuse and its consequences as emotional abuse is even more frequent than sexual or physical abuse and child maltreatment.  

[*] What kind of papers we are soliciting:

This Special Issue invites researchers of the topic of child maltreatment to share their work related to risk factors and longitudinal consequences of all different forms of abuse in early life. A focus on vulnerable risk groups among children, as well as parents, will be highly welcomed, as well as research targeting neurobiological and psychophysiological sequelae of child abuse. Other topics of specific interest are concepts of child protection, efforts of prevention, and intervention, regarding parent–child interaction or emotional regulation of children and caregivers.

The relationship between child psychiatric disturbances and different forms of abuse in children, as well as their parents’ childhood, seem to be of importance; discussing, challenging, or supporting the construct of developmental trauma disorder. Articles contributing to a transdiagnostic focus and a novel view on diagnostic and therapeutic standards of child psychiatry in general will be highly welcomed.

Prof. Dr. Eva Möhler
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• child abuse
• sexual abuse
• emotional abuse
• physical abuse
• child maltreatment
• intergenerational transmission
• early life stress
• early life maltreatment
• developmental trauma disorder
• developmental trauma