LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Course goals
➔ Illustrate and explain the consequences of the different forms of childhood
maltreatment within the domains of cognition, emotion, social behavior, and
physical health.
➔ Describe the psychological and neurobiological models that aim to explain the
long-term consequences of childhood maltreatment and individual differences
in risk and resilience.
➔ Summarize and discuss different forms of psychotherapy that address the
consequences of childhood maltreatment.
➔ Learn about different research methods and their potential use in studying the
long-term consequences of childhood maltreatment.
➔ Getting familiarized with reading scientific literature.
What to learn?
➔ Main focus: scientific papers
o Research results
▪ Focus on theoretical reasoning, outcomes and conclusions.
▪ Specific methods are less important, but needed to understand
and interpret the results.
o Review papers
▪ Focus on theory, consensus among studies, and conclusions.
▪ No knowledge of the separately discussed papers is needed.
➔ Lecture content
o Experience expert/researcgers/clinicans
➔ Book
o Not a classic study book.
o Case studies as input for exam.
o Read in own tempo; suggested to read 1 chapter per week.
Exam
➔ Multiple choice (40) and open answer (2-3) questions.
o Questions are all in English.
o Answers in Dutch are allowed.
➔ There is a practice exam.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT
Why learn about the long term consequences of childhood abuse and neglect?
,Sara R. Jaffee & Li et al.,…
➔ Empirical Evidence
o Numerous findings that childhood abuse and neglect have pervasive
consequences for mental and physical health.
o Adults who experienced childhood maltreatment can have mental and
physical health problems → it seems to linger on.
Importance of safe childhood
➔ Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
➔ Henry Harlow (1905-1981)
➔ John Bowlby (1907-1990)
o The infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and
continuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother
substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment and that not so
do so may have significant and irreversible mental health
consequences.
o How can we revers this consequences?
➔ Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999)
Titel of the course?
➔ Psychological and Neurobiological Consequences of Child Maltreatment
o Maltreatment = abuse and neglect
➔ Childhood maltreatment = any act of commission or omission by a parent or
other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threath of harm to a
child. Harm does not need to be intended (Gilbert et al., 2009)
o Ommission= failure to meet a child’s needs.
▪ Physical neglect
▪ Emotional neglect
▪ Denial of access to education
o Commission = actively doing something harmful
▪ Physical abuse
▪ Emotional abuse
▪ Sexual abuse
▪ Shake Baby Syndrome
Types of maltreatment
➔ Emotional neglect = failure to meet a child’s emotional needs and failure to
protect a child from violence in the home or neighborhood.
➔ Physical neglect = failure to meet a child’s basic physical, medical/dental, or
educational needs; failure to provide adequate nutrition, hygiene, or shelter.
, ➔ Emotional abuse = Intentional behaviour that conveys to a child that he/she is
worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or valued only in meeting
another's needs.
➔ Physical abuse = intentional use of physical force or implements against a
child that results in, or has the potential to, result in physical hurt.
➔ Sexual abuse = any completed or attempted sexual act, sexual contact, or
non-contact sexual interaction with a child by a caregiver.
Prevalence of childhood maltreatment
➔ World Health Organization
o Worldwide children report that they suffered some form of violence in
the past year.
▪ Physical abuse: 23%
▪ Emotional abuse: 36%
▪ Physical neglect: 16%
▪ Sexual abuse
• Girls: 18%
• Boys: 8%
➔ Dutch National Prevalence study “Abuse of Children and Adolescents
o NPM-2005 & NPM-2010
o Professionals: 34/1000 children (±3,5%)
o This is based on numbers that professionals are aware of. There might
be a lot of abuse that didn’t got seen.
➔ Student on Maltreatment (SOM study)
o Self-report among 1.800 children 12-16 years.
o 37% report one or more forms of abuse.
▪ Self-report numbers are higher than what professionals see.
o Emotional & physical abuse most frequent.
High comorbidity of types of abuse & neglect
DSM-5
➔ Classification system for psychological disorders based on standard criteria.
o Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
o It describes and groups disorders
o It’s a “yes” or “no” thing → you have this disorder or you don’t have this
disorder.
➔ Published by American Psychiatric Association (APA)
o First edition in 1950
➔ Focus on objective description of symptoms with no theoretical framework.
➔ Decreased focus on aetiology (i.e., cause).
o Aetiology = the cause, set of causes or manner of causation of a
disease or condition.
, o When we talk about cause and effect, there seems to be a strong link
between childhood maltreatment and many mental disorders.
➔ Psychological consequences of childhood maltreatment
o Internalizing & externalizing disorders
o Personality disorders (BPD/anti-social)
o Psychotic symptoms
o Suicide and self-injury
Often earlier onset, more severe/chronic, and
harder to treat.
Type of abuse/neglect seems less relevant.
Research in Leiden: Spinhoven et al., 2010
➔ Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA)
➔ Method
o Sample
▪ N= 2981 participants
o 8-year longitudinal controlled community study
➔ Retrospective reports
Maltreatment Control group Any disorder Odds ratio
(n=498) (n=2288)
Emotional neglect 19% 45% 3.54***
Emotional abuse 11% 29% 3.25***
Physical abuse 6% 16% 2.79***
Sexual abuse 13% 21% 1.79***
➔ Results
o Between the “control” group and the “any disorder” group, you can see
that the % is much higher for the “any disorder” group.
o You can see from the table that someone who experience emotional
neglect have 3.54x higher chance to have a disorder.
o Majority (>90%) identified parents as perpetrator.
➔ Resilience
Childhood maltreatment subtype within disorders?
Telcher et al., 2021 & De RESET studies
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Course goals
➔ Illustrate and explain the consequences of the different forms of childhood
maltreatment within the domains of cognition, emotion, social behavior, and
physical health.
➔ Describe the psychological and neurobiological models that aim to explain the
long-term consequences of childhood maltreatment and individual differences
in risk and resilience.
➔ Summarize and discuss different forms of psychotherapy that address the
consequences of childhood maltreatment.
➔ Learn about different research methods and their potential use in studying the
long-term consequences of childhood maltreatment.
➔ Getting familiarized with reading scientific literature.
What to learn?
➔ Main focus: scientific papers
o Research results
▪ Focus on theoretical reasoning, outcomes and conclusions.
▪ Specific methods are less important, but needed to understand
and interpret the results.
o Review papers
▪ Focus on theory, consensus among studies, and conclusions.
▪ No knowledge of the separately discussed papers is needed.
➔ Lecture content
o Experience expert/researcgers/clinicans
➔ Book
o Not a classic study book.
o Case studies as input for exam.
o Read in own tempo; suggested to read 1 chapter per week.
Exam
➔ Multiple choice (40) and open answer (2-3) questions.
o Questions are all in English.
o Answers in Dutch are allowed.
➔ There is a practice exam.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT
Why learn about the long term consequences of childhood abuse and neglect?
,Sara R. Jaffee & Li et al.,…
➔ Empirical Evidence
o Numerous findings that childhood abuse and neglect have pervasive
consequences for mental and physical health.
o Adults who experienced childhood maltreatment can have mental and
physical health problems → it seems to linger on.
Importance of safe childhood
➔ Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
➔ Henry Harlow (1905-1981)
➔ John Bowlby (1907-1990)
o The infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and
continuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother
substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment and that not so
do so may have significant and irreversible mental health
consequences.
o How can we revers this consequences?
➔ Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999)
Titel of the course?
➔ Psychological and Neurobiological Consequences of Child Maltreatment
o Maltreatment = abuse and neglect
➔ Childhood maltreatment = any act of commission or omission by a parent or
other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threath of harm to a
child. Harm does not need to be intended (Gilbert et al., 2009)
o Ommission= failure to meet a child’s needs.
▪ Physical neglect
▪ Emotional neglect
▪ Denial of access to education
o Commission = actively doing something harmful
▪ Physical abuse
▪ Emotional abuse
▪ Sexual abuse
▪ Shake Baby Syndrome
Types of maltreatment
➔ Emotional neglect = failure to meet a child’s emotional needs and failure to
protect a child from violence in the home or neighborhood.
➔ Physical neglect = failure to meet a child’s basic physical, medical/dental, or
educational needs; failure to provide adequate nutrition, hygiene, or shelter.
, ➔ Emotional abuse = Intentional behaviour that conveys to a child that he/she is
worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or valued only in meeting
another's needs.
➔ Physical abuse = intentional use of physical force or implements against a
child that results in, or has the potential to, result in physical hurt.
➔ Sexual abuse = any completed or attempted sexual act, sexual contact, or
non-contact sexual interaction with a child by a caregiver.
Prevalence of childhood maltreatment
➔ World Health Organization
o Worldwide children report that they suffered some form of violence in
the past year.
▪ Physical abuse: 23%
▪ Emotional abuse: 36%
▪ Physical neglect: 16%
▪ Sexual abuse
• Girls: 18%
• Boys: 8%
➔ Dutch National Prevalence study “Abuse of Children and Adolescents
o NPM-2005 & NPM-2010
o Professionals: 34/1000 children (±3,5%)
o This is based on numbers that professionals are aware of. There might
be a lot of abuse that didn’t got seen.
➔ Student on Maltreatment (SOM study)
o Self-report among 1.800 children 12-16 years.
o 37% report one or more forms of abuse.
▪ Self-report numbers are higher than what professionals see.
o Emotional & physical abuse most frequent.
High comorbidity of types of abuse & neglect
DSM-5
➔ Classification system for psychological disorders based on standard criteria.
o Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
o It describes and groups disorders
o It’s a “yes” or “no” thing → you have this disorder or you don’t have this
disorder.
➔ Published by American Psychiatric Association (APA)
o First edition in 1950
➔ Focus on objective description of symptoms with no theoretical framework.
➔ Decreased focus on aetiology (i.e., cause).
o Aetiology = the cause, set of causes or manner of causation of a
disease or condition.
, o When we talk about cause and effect, there seems to be a strong link
between childhood maltreatment and many mental disorders.
➔ Psychological consequences of childhood maltreatment
o Internalizing & externalizing disorders
o Personality disorders (BPD/anti-social)
o Psychotic symptoms
o Suicide and self-injury
Often earlier onset, more severe/chronic, and
harder to treat.
Type of abuse/neglect seems less relevant.
Research in Leiden: Spinhoven et al., 2010
➔ Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA)
➔ Method
o Sample
▪ N= 2981 participants
o 8-year longitudinal controlled community study
➔ Retrospective reports
Maltreatment Control group Any disorder Odds ratio
(n=498) (n=2288)
Emotional neglect 19% 45% 3.54***
Emotional abuse 11% 29% 3.25***
Physical abuse 6% 16% 2.79***
Sexual abuse 13% 21% 1.79***
➔ Results
o Between the “control” group and the “any disorder” group, you can see
that the % is much higher for the “any disorder” group.
o You can see from the table that someone who experience emotional
neglect have 3.54x higher chance to have a disorder.
o Majority (>90%) identified parents as perpetrator.
➔ Resilience
Childhood maltreatment subtype within disorders?
Telcher et al., 2021 & De RESET studies
