PSYCHOLOGICAL MALTREATMENT

Psychological maltreatment

Specific types of caregiver behavior that is likely to harm or has harmed a child.

Emotional abuse

A form of psychological maltreatment that harms a child's emotional well-being.

Mental injury

A type of damage to a child's psychological state caused by abusive behavior.

Spurning

Rejecting and/or degrading a child, e.g., through constant criticism or humiliation.

Exploiting/Corrupting

Encouraging a child to develop inappropriate behaviors/attitudes, such as self-destructive or antisocial behaviors.

Terrorizing

Threatening a child with harm, such as threats to kill them or their pets.

Emotional unresponsiveness

Not being emotionally available to a child, even when they attempt to connect.

Isolating

Preventing a child from socializing with people outside of the home.

Neglect

Failure to provide for a child's mental health, medical needs, or education.

Dose-response relationship

In the context of PM, it refers to the correlation between the frequency and severity of maltreatment and the degree of adverse consequences for the child.

Prevalence of PM

The difficulty in establishing independent rates of psychological maltreatment due to its overlap with other forms of abuse.

Tiers of intervention for PM

Three levels of intervention: Tier 1 for all children, Tier 2 for at-risk children, Tier 3 for children already experiencing maltreatment.

Community prevalence rates for PM

Estimated to be between 13-25%.

Clinical prevalence rates for PM

Estimated to be between 19-32%.

Impact categories of PM

Includes mental health problems, interpersonal problems, cognitive problems, behavioral problems, and physical health problems.

Effects of early PM

Associated with dramatically lowered IQ, language delays, attachment disorders, and various internalizing and externalizing problems.