The International Society on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) International Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect is an renowned monthly publication of the best practices, data and research from all over the world on the topic of child abuse and neglect.

“Child Maltreatment and Depression: A Meta-Analysis of Studies Using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire” by co-authors Kate Humphreys of Vanderbilt University and Joelle LeMoult of the University of British Columbia has won article of the year. Using a meta-analytic approach, the authors shine a light on how the experience of child maltreatment and specific types of maltreatment contribute to depression in adulthood. By examining this association in nearly 70,000 participants, they found a large association between childhood maltreatment severity and depression diagnosis and that the forms of maltreatment that receive less attention, specifically emotional maltreatment, demonstrated the strongest association with depression. These findings highlight the importance of childhood maltreatment—even in its less serious forms—in contributing to later mental health, including significant consequences for depression.

Read the full article here.