Child maltreatment across the lifespan

ABSTRACT

The present editorial introduces selected research for a special issue covering the 15th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) 2017, ‘Child Maltreatment across the Lifespan’. Unfortunately, childhood maltreatment is highly prevalent around the world. Exposure to child maltreatment is associated with a considerable risk of developing a wide range of psychopathologies. Thus, preventing child maltreatment and offering early treatment to victims is an important and promising area in reducing the risk of psychopathology. The 10 articles included in the special issue focus on different important areas related to the topic of child maltreatment. These include a biological and systemic understanding of maltreatment, a globalization perspective, and contributions on diagnosis and treatment, with implications for clinical practice. Furthermore, the special issue includes an update on ICD-11 and implications associated with the implementation of ICD-11. Future research recommendations are provided to underline the enduring need to promote and undertake research into all aspects of child maltreatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Child maltreatment
• ESTSS 2017
• globalization
• diagnostics
• PTSD
• ICD-11

HIGHLIGHTS:

• • The present editorial highlights research presented at the Annual Meeting of ESTSS 2017, ‘Child Maltreatment across the Lifespan’.• It underlines important steps taken towards a biological and systemic understanding, global collaboration, and a more uniform clinical approach to child maltreatment.• An update on ICD-11 and implications of implementing ICD-11 are included.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank associate editors Neil Roberts and Siri Thoresen for their assistance with editing two of the included articles.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.