Abstract:
More than 676,000 children in the United States are abused and neglected annually,
and 1,500 die as a result. Maltreatment harms children’s mental health and academic
achievement, and increases their risk for chronic diseases of aging. In addition
to the human costs, the estimated costs of this maltreatment—billions of dollars
annually—have raised calls for better understanding of how maltreatment harms
children and more effective approaches to prevention and treatment. New studies on
the neurobiological science of maltreatment show that child abuse and neglect alter
children’s biological systems, including brain development.