Childhood Maltreatment History and Adult Depression: Methodological Issues

Abstract

The association between childhood maltreatment and later mental health problems, especially adult depression, has been widely studied in the literature. The long-term effects of childhood maltreatment have encouraged investigators to examine possible factors and mechanisms explaining this relationship. Studies investigating genetic and nervous, endocrine and immune systems-related factors explaining the link between childhood adversity and adult depression reported significant results. However, findings of studies examining childhood maltreatment and adult depression relationship should be evaluated carefully before taking actions on them due to a number of limitations. This paper documented some of these methodological issues briefly: concerns about definition and terms used for maltreatment, generalizability of results, uncontrolled factors, unreturned data, multiple maltreatment types and assessment of maltreatment. Findings of research on long-term effects of maltreatment are promising to offer new research directions as well as development of strategies to help individuals with early maltreatment history and depression in adulthood. Future studies should take methodological concerns into consideration and try to overcome related limitations.