SynthesisPloS one2020
Improving measurement of child abuse and neglect: A systematic review and analysis of national prevalence studies.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 198 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unraveling the Concept of Childhood Adversity in Psychosis Research: A Systematic Review.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2024Pooled it
- Global Prevalence of Childhood Exposure to Physical Violence within Domestic and Family Relationships in the General Population: A Systematic Review and Proportional Meta-Analysis.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2024Pooled it
- Measuring Violence Against Children: A COSMIN Systematic Review of the Psychometric and Administrative Properties of Adult Retrospective Self-report Instruments on Child Abuse and Neglect.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2024Pooled it
- Exploring the prevalence of childhood adversity among university students in the United Kingdom: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Measuring Violence Against Children: A COSMIN Systematic Review of the Psychometric Properties of Child and Adolescent Self-Report Measures.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2023Pooled it
- Child Maltreatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Rapid Review.Pediatric clinics of North America · 2021Pooled it
- Perpetrator types, severity, and cumulative trauma: a population-based study of childhood sexual abuse characteristics and lifelong health.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- The Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFSC-11): psychometric properties and convergence with measures of child maltreatment and depression in Vietnamese adolescents.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Squaring the circle: Is triangulation of child abuse reports helpful?Child abuse & neglect · 2026Article
- Estimating burden of disease attributable to child maltreatment using findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2026Article
- Exploring Associations of Different Types of Childhood Trauma With Symptomatology in Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2026Article
- Associations between online child sexual solicitation and abuse and offline child maltreatment: A latent class analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Child maltreatment in Canada: prevalence and gender differences among youth.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2026Article
- The mediating effect of alexisomia between childhood abuse and depression/stress in a sample of Lebanese adults: A cross-sectional study.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Poly-victimization and post-traumatic stress symptoms in care experienced youth: the mediating role of mentalizing.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Exploring the relationships between Early Childhood Adversity, Social Cognition, and Aggression in a South African Study of People Living with Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2025Review
- Predicting Maltreatment in Adolescents with Mentally Ill Parents: A Random Forest Tree Analysis.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Heterogeneity in interpersonal and intrapersonal emotion regulation among adolescents with histories of child physical abuse and emotional abuse: a latent profile analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The Association Between Sexual Victimization History and Consensual and Nonconsensual Rough Sex: Findings from a U.S. Nationally Representative Survey.Psychology of violence · 2025Article
- Trauma and ICD-11 PTSD in substance use disorder treatment: a Danish multi-site study.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesChild maltreatment through physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence, causes substantial adverse health, educational and behavioural consequences through the lifespan. The generation of reliable data on the prevalence and characteristics of child maltreatment in nationwide populations is essential to plan and evaluate public health interventions to reduce maltreatment. Measurement of child maltreatment must overcome numerous methodological challenges. Little is known to date about the extent, nature and methodological quality of these national studies. This study aimed to systematically review the most comprehensive national studies of the prevalence of child maltreatment, and critically appraise their methodologies to help inform the design of future studies.
methodsGuided by PRISMA and following a published protocol, we searched 22 databases from inception to 31 May 2019 to identify nationwide studies of the prevalence of either all five or at least four forms of child maltreatment. We conducted a formal quality assessment and critical analysis of study design.
resultsThis review identified 30 national prevalence studies of all five or at least four forms of child maltreatment, in 22 countries. While sound approaches are available for different settings, methodologies varied widely in nature and robustness. Some instruments are more reliable and obtain more detailed and useful information about the characteristics of the maltreatment, including its nature, frequency, and the relationship between the child and the person who inflicted the maltreatment. Almost all studies had limitations, especially in the level of detail captured about maltreatment, and the adequacy of constructs of maltreatment types.
conclusionsCountries must invest in rigorous national studies of the prevalence of child maltreatment. Studies should use a sound instrument containing appropriate maltreatment constructs, and obtain nuanced information about its nature.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.