The Impact of Trauma on Child Development

ABSTRACT A growing body of research links childhood experiences of abuse and neglect with serious life‐long problems including depression, suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse, and major medical problems such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Two basic processes, neurodevelopment and psychosocial development, are affected by early abuse and neglect. Scientists have begun to understand the mechanisms through which these adverse experiences alter child development and produce pernicious mental, medical, and social outcomes. These insights have opened opportunities to intervene to prevent maltreatment and to mitigate its effects. Future success depends on the greater dissemination and refinement of these interventions.