Childhood Maltreatment and Biological Aging in Middle Adulthood: The Role of Psychiatric Symptoms.

Background: Childhood maltreatment and psychiatric morbidity have each been associated with accelerated biological aging primarily through cross-sectional studies. Using data from a prospective longitudinal study of individuals with histories of childhood maltreatment and control participants followed into midlife, we tested 2 hypotheses examining whether 1) psychiatric symptoms mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and biological aging and 2) psychiatric symptoms of anxiety, depression, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) act in conjunction with childhood maltreatment to exacerbate the association of child maltreatment to aging.

Methods: Children (ages 0-11 years) with documented histories of maltreatment and demographically matched control children were followed into adulthood ( = 607) and interviewed over several waves of the study.

Factors influencing adult cognitive appraisals of childhood sexual abuse.

Background: Adult appraisals of their childhood sexual experiences as abusive are associated with increased risk for long-term psychological problems. Factors that underlie whether adults appraise their childhood sexual experiences as abusive remain unknown.

Objective: To determine factors associated with adult cognitive appraisals of childhood sexual abuse.

Mock Jurors' Perceptions of Child Sexual Abuse Cases: Investigating the Role of Delayed Disclosure and Relationship to the Perpetrator.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) claims brought forward weeks, months, or years after the alleged events are commonplace, yet the trial-level ramifications of delayed disclosure remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated the influence of length of delayed disclosure (1 day, 1 month, 10 months) as a function of the victim-perpetrator relationship (next-door neighbor, stepfather) on mock jurors' perceptions of a CSA case. Jury-eligible participants (N = 328) read a mock trial summary describing an alleged incident of CSA between an adult male defendant and a seven-year-old female victim.

Analyzing the scientific foundation of Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome: A reply to Lyon et al.

The issue before the New Jersey Supreme Court in the Frye hearing New Jersey v. J.L.