Data was collected at home, university and school settings from children 10-16 by trained psychology staff in a quiet setting. Data were collected via questionnaires and with psychological experimental tasks. The functional tasks investigated both autobiographical memory and affect processing. This research is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of maltreatment on children and help inform more effective forms of prevention and treatment.Childhood maltreatment remains a major public health and social welfare concern and has a profound impact on the individual and on society. The main objective of this project was to significantly extend our understanding of the range of neurocognitive correlates of maltreatment, and relate these to future psychological functioning. It addressed several important questions: (1) Is autobiographical memory recall predictive of future psychological functioning in maltreated children? (2) What is the neurocognitive basis of atypical autobiographical memory in maltreated children? (3) Do neural correlates of maltreatment predict later psychological functioning? (4) To what degree are neural correlates associated with maltreatment stable over time? (5) Are their sex differences in how maltreatment impacts brain structure and function? These questions were addressed by a longitudinal study comparing children exposed to maltreatment with matched non-maltreated peers. Both groups were seen when they were 10-14 years old for a structural and functional brain scan and again two years later.

The study aimed to recruit 70 children (male and female) between aged 10-14 years at Time 1: those with a history of documented maltreatment (MT group; n=35) and those with no documented history of maltreatment (NMT group; n=35). At Time 2 (24 months later) we sought to recruit 70% of the sample for retesting (MT group, n=25; NMT group, n=25) allowing for sample attrition. Exclusion criteria for the NMT group include documented social services contact and / or evidence of exposure to family violence. Exclusion criteria for both groups included: i. history of brain injury, and ii. Substance-use problems (using standard Alcohol and Drug Use Disorders Identification Tests available from the WHO website); iii. Documented diagnosis of learning disability; iv. pervasive developmental disorder.