**Author details**

10 Child Abuse and Neglect – A Multidimensional Approach

anxiety [92-94].

that physically abused adolescents and adults who were subjected to physical abuse in

By way of example, various studies have found that children and young people who are the victims of physical abuse and children and young people who are part of a violent family context, in comparison with children and young people who do not display these characteristics, display more emotional problems [69,84,89-91]. The research reveals that physical abuse is associated with a variety of emotional problems such as somatisation, depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoid ideation, psychosis, posttraumatic symptoms and dissociative disorder. This relationship is moderated by aspects such as the presence of multiple types of abuse and the gender of the perpetrator. The data obtained in the various research studies indicates that the combination of physical and sexual abuse has greater emotional consequences for the victims, generating above all, depression and

An important association exists between being physically abused in childhood and an increase in the manifestation of self-harming behaviour and suicides in adolescence and adulthood [94-101]. However, different research studies have demonstrated that this correlation varies depending on the victim's gender, the type of abuse and the level of parental conflict. For instance, it has been suggested that physical abuse in itself does not produce suicidal behaviour; however, when physical and sexual abuse are experienced

Much of the literature on child abuse and neglect has related physical abuse with delinquency and aggressive behaviour in adolescence. A close relationship has also been found between physical abuse and conduct disorder which, in turn, has been associated

Having suffered child neglect in childhood has been associated with poor psychological

The results of studies such as the *Minnesota Mother-Child Project* [103] verify that children who were victims of physical neglect displayed serious social-emotional problems, and most of these problems had an internalising nature. In the same way, in other studies, it has been found that physical neglect and a lack of supervision in childhood is associated with an increase in the risk of producing self-harming behaviour and suicidal tendencies [72,101], suffering from personality disorders with high symptoms of anxiety, depression [104] and

Research on sexual abuse suggests that children and adolescents who develop in an abusive environment run the risk of suffering psychological difficulties that are characterised by

childhood have a high risk of displaying mental health problems [81-88].

together, this behaviour seems to be produced more frequently [102].

with delinquency and aggressive behaviour [84].

function in childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

**4.2. Psychopathological consequences of child neglect** 

dissociative disorders in adolescence and adulthood [105].

**4.3. Psychopathological consequences of sexual abuse** 

Alexander Muela, Elena López de Arana, Alexander Barandiaran, Iñaki Larrea and José Ramón Vitoria *University of Mondragon Unibertsitatea, Department of Child Well Being, Eskoriatza, Spain* 
