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Abstract: 

This article is a chapter from Kathleen Kendall-Tackett’s authoritative and comprehensive volume, Treating the Lifetime Health Effects of Childhood Victimization. The book is a masterful, up-to-date compilation of the best of our knowledge concerning the harmful outcomes of childhood abuse. As Ms. Kendall-Tackett ably demonstrates throughout the book, abuse is a toxin that causes myriad harms to children across multiple pathways and often for a lifetime. In this article, she focuses on the variety of social-emotional implications of abuse on the short- and long-term functioning of its victims.

Keywords: social bonding; maladaptive interpersonal patterns; attachment theory; avoidant and intrusive interpersonal styles; estranged relationship with parents; quality of adult partnerships; abuse disclosure; cognitive decline; lonliness

Affiliations:  1: Founding Editor, Texas Tech School of Medicine.