000 03000 am a22002773u 4500
042 _adc
100 1 0 _aBaldwin, Jessie R.
_eauthor
_92866
700 1 0 _aWang, Biyao
_eauthor
_92867
700 1 0 _aKarwatowska, Lucy
_eauthor
_92868
700 1 0 _aSchoeler, Tabea
_eauthor
_92869
700 1 0 _aTsaligopoulou, Anna
_eauthor
_92870
700 1 0 _aMunafò, Marcus R.
_eauthor
_91924
700 1 0 _aPingault, Jean-Baptiste
_eauthor
_92871
245 0 0 _aChildhood maltreatment and mental health problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis of quasi-experimental studies
260 _c2023-02-01.
500 _a/pmc/articles/PMC7614155/
500 _a/pubmed/36628513
520 _aOBJECTIVE: Childhood maltreatment is associated with mental health problems, but the extent to which this relationship is causal remains unclear. To strengthen causal inference, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of quasi-experimental studies examining the relationship between childhood maltreatment and mental health problems. METHODS: We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase for peer-reviewed, English language articles from inception until January 1, 2022. Studies were included if they examined the association between childhood maltreatment and mental health problems using a quasi-experimental method (e.g., twin/sibling differences design, Children of Twins design, adoption design, fixed-effects design, random-intercept cross-lagged panel model, natural experiment, propensity score matching, or inverse probability weighting). RESULTS: We identified 34 quasi-experimental studies, including 54,646 independent participants. Before quasi-experimental adjustment for confounding, childhood maltreatment was moderately associated with mental health problems (Cohen's d=0.56, 95% CI=0.41-0.71). Following quasi-experimental adjustment, a small association between childhood maltreatment and mental health problems remained (Cohen's d=0.31, 95% CI=0.24-0.37). This adjusted association between child maltreatment and mental health was consistent across different quasi-experimental methods, and generalised across different psychiatric disorders. CONCLUSION: These findings are consistent with a small, causal contribution of childhood maltreatment to mental health problems. Furthermore, the findings suggest that part of the overall risk of mental health problems in individuals exposed to maltreatment is due to wider genetic and environmental risk factors. Therefore, preventing childhood maltreatment and addressing wider psychiatric risk factors in individuals exposed to maltreatment could help to prevent psychopathology.
540 _a
540 _ahttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) International license.
546 _aen
690 _aArticle
655 7 _aText
_2local
786 0 _nAm J Psychiatry
856 4 1 _uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20220174
_zConnect to this object online.
999 _c2126
_d2126