Experts still don’t have all the answers, but they have a better appreciation for how to help young victims confront their abuse experience
child abuse
Sexual and Emotional Abuse Scar the Brain in Specific Ways
Childhood emotional and sexual abuse mark women’s brains in distinct patterns — with emotional abuse affecting regions involved in self-awareness and sexual abuse affecting areas involved in genital sensation, according to …
Abused Children May Get Unique Form of PTSD
Child abuse scars not just the brain and body, but, according to the latest research, but may leave its mark on genes as well.
How Small Bruises Lead to Big Ones in Child-Abuse Cases
In more than two decades as a child-abuse pediatrician, Dr. Lynn Sheets has noticed a trend.
Child Abuse: Why It’s So Hard to Determine Who’s at Risk
Prevention is nearly always preferable to treatment when it comes to our health, and the stakes are even higher in cases of child abuse. But is it even possible to identify children at risk of abuse before it’s too late?
Childhood Trauma Leaves Legacy of Brain Changes
Painful experiences early in life can alter the brain in lasting ways.
Study: Serious Child Abuse Injuries Rise Slightly in the U.S.
A new study finds that rates of serious child abuse have risen slightly in the U.S. over the past 12 years, suggesting that other data showing a decline in abuse may be due to differences in reporting, rather than a true …
Treating Addiction: A Top Doc Explains Why Kind Love Beats Tough Love
Using punishment to try to rehabilitate people who have already suffered years of punishment doesn’t work
How Childhood Trauma May Make the Brain Vulnerable to Addiction, Depression
Childhood trauma has long been known to raise a child’s odds of developing depression and addiction later on. Now, a small but intriguing new study links these risks to specific changes in the brain, finding that disruptions in …
Psychological Abuse: More Common, as Harmful as Other Child Maltreatment
Psychological abuse — including demeaning, bullying and humiliating — may be the most prevalent form of child maltreatment. Yet it’s among the hardest to identify or to treat
New Abuse Allegations Arise at Drug Treatment Programs Owned by Bain Capital
What will it take to stop the abuse and neglect of residents at drug-treatment centers, whose unproven practices go largely unnoticed because of lax regulations?
Hitting Your Kids Increases Their Risk of Mental Illness
Children who are pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped or hit are more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness. Just one more reason to embrace alternative forms of discipline
After the Sandusky Verdict, Lessons for Parents
It was late Friday night, within minutes of the announcement that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had been found guilty of 45 of 48 counts of sexually abusing children, that the National Child Protection …