The Concept of Childhood Trauma in Psychopathology: Definitions and Historical Perspectives

This chapter provides an overview of the concept of childhood trauma and its examination in the emergence of psychopathology. We start by briefly defining and describing childhood traumatic events, distinguishing between events and their sequelae (i.e., symptoms), and highlighting cultural variations in the understanding and meaning ascribed to traumatic events. We review the epidemiology of childhood exposure to traumatic events around the world, and then provide a historical perspective on childhood trauma. The final section of the chapter presents an overarching developmental psychopathology framework to understand the pathways by which trauma exposure leads to increased risk for the emergence and progression of different types of psychopathology, invoking developmental psychopathology concepts as a way to understand the multiple pathways from different types of traumatic events to risk for psychopathology.