ABSTRACT
The experience of neglect and abuse in childhood has dire consequences for the longer term health of victims. The more immediately observable consequences are psychological. There are many mechanisms through which childhood abuse affects adverse health outcomes. These are biological, social and psychological and the resulting lifespan causal models are complex and still being developed. The most comprehensive psychological approach to the link between child abuse and lifespan psychological disorder is that of 'developmental psychopathology'. The magnitude of the risk is comparable to the association between child abuse and poor psychological outcomes. Abuse is known to occur more often in disadvantaged families and can be associated with stress and adversity in parents. When historical abuse was investigated in the same study but in the adult women, similar findings held for emotional disorder. Childhood abuse is also a common precursor of anti-social behaviour which leads to a criminal trajectory.
