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Child Abuse and Trauma

Child Abuse and Trauma is a research topic within Clinical Psychology. Science Explorer counts 41k research works in it since 1950. 29.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the long-term effects of childhood trauma and adversity, including the impact on mental health, neurobiological consequences, psychiatric disorders, adverse childhood experiences, maltreatment, emotional abuse, neural development, and resilience.

  • Childhood Trauma
  • Adverse Experiences
  • Mental Health
  • Neurobiological Consequences
  • Psychiatric Disorders
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences
  • Maltreatment
  • Emotional Abuse
  • Neural Development
  • Resilience
Research works
41k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
12k
per year above
Top-10% rate
29.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+32%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Child Abuse and Trauma research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (3k and 790 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 3k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 790 works
  3. 3 Australia 537 works
  4. 4 Canada 488 works
  5. 5 China 386 works
  6. 6 Germany 289 works
  7. 7 Türkiye 263 works
  8. 8 India 169 works
  9. 9 Netherlands 164 works
  10. 10 Spain 159 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 47.8%United Kingdom: 12.7%Australia: 8.6%Canada: 7.8%6 others listed: 23.0%48%largest
United States2,976 · 47.8%United Kingdom790 · 12.7%Australia537 · 8.6%Canada488 · 7.8%6 others listed1,431 · 23.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Child Abuse and Trauma research?

By volume in 2022–2025, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill publishes the most Child Abuse and Trauma research, followed by Johns Hopkins University and King's College London.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 54 works
  2. 2 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 37 works
  3. 3 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 34 works
  4. 4 The University of MelbourneAustralia 34 works
  5. 5 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 34 works
  6. 6 University of TorontoCanada 33 works
  7. 7 Yale UniversityUnited States 32 works
  8. 8 Pennsylvania State UniversityUnited States 31 works
  9. 9 University of MichiganUnited States 31 works
  10. 10 Harvard UniversityUnited States 29 works

Who are the leading researchers in Child Abuse and Trauma?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Child Abuse and Trauma include Ronald C. Kessler, Dan J. Stein and Holly E Erskine.

  1. 1 Ronald C. Kessler United States 9.8k citations
  2. 2 Dan J. Stein South Africa 7.7k citations
  3. 3 Holly E Erskine United States 4.6k citations
  4. 4 James G. Scott Australia 4.3k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Child Abuse and Trauma research done?

The largest centres of Child Abuse and Trauma research in 2022–2025 are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Melbourne (Australia) and Montreal (Canada).

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 London United Kingdom 190 works
  2. 2 New York United States 144 works
  3. 3 Melbourne Australia 123 works
  4. 4 Montreal Canada 88 works
  5. 5 Brisbane Australia 86 works
  6. 6 Atlanta United States 81 works
  7. 7 Sydney Australia 78 works
  8. 8 Beijing China 78 works
  9. 9 Baltimore United States 74 works
  10. 10 Toronto Canada 73 works
See Child Abuse and Trauma on the map

Where is the best place to study Child Abuse and Trauma?

Among universities, judged by research, Charles Sturt University, University of New Hampshire and Australian Catholic University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%25%50%mean 35.73%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Charles Sturt University: 11, 43.5%University of New Hampshire: 8, 57.6%Australian Catholic University: 12, 36.8%University College London: 34, 39.7%Florida State University: 20, 27.1%King's College London: 34, 38.1%Liverpool John Moores University: 11, 40.2%Griffith University: 25, 22.5%University of Denver: 10, 35.4%Université du Québec à Montréal: 19, 16.4%University of New Ha…Charles Sturt Univer…University College L…Australian Catholic …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Charles Sturt UniversityAustralia 58.843.5%10.3×11 +57.2%
2 University of New HampshireUnited States 58.657.6%10.8×8 -2.9%
3 Australian Catholic UniversityAustralia 58.136.8%14.8×12 +79.6%
4 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 57.639.7%3.1×34 +131.9%
5 Florida State UniversityUnited States 57.527.1%7.7×20 +191.6%
6 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 55.938.1%5.7×34 +23.4%
7 Liverpool John Moores UniversityUnited Kingdom 55.740.2%8.7×11 +55.8%
8 Griffith UniversityAustralia 53.022.5%8.1×25 +66.0%
9 University of DenverUnited States 52.635.4%11.2×10 +69.1%
10 Université du Québec à MontréalCanada 51.616.4%9.9×19 +90.4%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Child Abuse and Trauma research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 32% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Child Abuse and Trauma.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.