Physical abuse and neglect include:

• causing physical pain or injury (called physical abuse or physical maltreatment)
• failing to give a child the care it needs according to its age (called child neglect)
• causing psychological injury (called psychological maltreatment)

Physical abuse means causing or attempting to cause physical pain or injury. It can result from punching, beating, kicking, burning, or harming a child in other ways. Sometimes, an injury occurs when a punishment does not fit a child's age or condition. Physical abuse can be a single act or several acts. In extreme cases, it can result in death.

Child neglect happens when a parent or guardian does not give a child the care it needs according to its age, even though the parent or guardian can afford to give that care or is offered help to give that care. Neglect can mean not giving food, clothing, and shelter. It can mean that a parent or guardian is not bringing a child to medical or mental health treatment or not giving the child prescribed medicines the child needs. Neglect can also mean neglecting the child's education. Keeping a child from school or from special education can be neglect. Neglect also includes exposing a child to dangerous environments. It can mean poor supervision for a child, including putting the child in the care of someone not capable of caring for children. And neglect can mean abandoning a child or expelling it from home. Neglect is the most common form of abuse reported to child welfare authorities.

Sometimes called emotional abuse, psychological maltreatment includes acts by parents or caregivers that have caused, or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental problems. Examples include verbal abuse and the isolation or confinement of a child. Psychological maltreatment can also happen when a parent or caretaker does not give a child something it needs to develop in a healthy way. For example, emotional neglect can be psychological maltreatment. Some forms of psychological maltreatment can be difficult to identify, and harm to the child must usually be demonstrated before public agencies intervene.

Read Questions & Answers about Child Physical Abuse (2008) (PDF), an interview with David Kolko.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on child physical abuse and neglect.

Child sexual abuse includes a wide range of sexual behaviors that take place between a child and an older person or alternatively between a child and another child/adolescent. Behaviors that are sexually abusive often involve bodily contact, such as in the case of sexual kissing, touching, fondling of genitals, and intercourse. However, behaviors may be sexually abusive even if they do not involve contact, such as in the case of genital exposure ("flashing"), verbal pressure for sex, and sexual exploitation for purposes of prostitution or pornography.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on child sexual abuse.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on child sexual abuse.

Childhood traumatic grief occurs following the death of a loved one when the child objectively or subjectively perceives the experience as traumatic. The cause of death can be due to what is usually described as traumatic, such as an act of violence, accident, disaster, or war, or it can be due to natural causes. The hallmark of childhood traumatic grief is that trauma symptoms interfere with the child's ability to navigate the typical bereavement process.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on childhood traumatic grief.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on childhood traumatic grief.

Domestic violence—sometimes called intimate partner violence, domestic abuse, or battering—includes actual or threatened physical or sexual violence or emotional abuse between adults in an intimate relationship. This clinical definition is broader than the legal definition, which may be restricted to acts of physical harm. Domestic violence can be directed toward a current or former spouse or partner, whether they are heterosexual or same-sex partners.

Anywhere from 3 to 10 million children are exposed to domestic violence in the United States every year. Studies suggest that the majority of children who are exposed to domestic violence are young-under the age of 8.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on domestic violence

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on domestic violence and childhood trauma.

Community and school violence include predatory violence (robbery, for example) and violence that comes from personal conflicts between people who are not family members. It may include brutal acts such as shootings, rapes, stabbings, and beatings. Children may experience trauma as both victims and perpetrators of violence. They also can be affected as witnesses (for example, seeing someone killed or simply hearing gunfire).

Indicators of school violence include fatal and nonfatal student victimization, nonfatal teacher victimization, students being threatened or injured with a weapon at school, fights at school, and students carrying weapons to school. Formal definitions of school violence range from very narrow to very broad. The Center for the Prevention of School Violence, for example, defines it broadly as "any behavior that violates a school's educational mission or climate of respect or jeopardizes the intent of the school to be free of aggression against persons or property, drugs, weapons, disruptions, and disorder." Students, teachers, and administrators alike can be victims of school violence.

Learn about the effects of trauma on a child's education on the Network's pages For School Personnel.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on community and school violence.

The term complex trauma describes the problem of children's exposure to multiple or prolonged traumatic events and the impact of this exposure on their development. Typically, complex trauma exposure involves the simultaneous or sequential occurrence of child maltreatment—including psychological maltreatment, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and domestic violence—that is chronic, begins in early childhood, and occurs within the primary care-giving system. Exposure to these initial traumatic experiences—and the resulting emotional dysregulation and the loss of safety, direction, and the ability to detect or respond to danger cues—often sets off a chain of events leading to subsequent or repeated trauma exposure in adolescence and adulthood.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on complex trauma.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on complex childhood trauma.

Pediatric medical traumatic stress refers to reactions that children and their families may have to pain, injury, and serious illness; or to "invasive" medical procedures (such as surgery) or treatments (such as burn care) that are sometimes frightening. Reactions can affect the mind as well as the body. For example, children and their families may become anxious, irritable, or on edge. They may have unwanted thoughts or nightmares about the illness, injury, or the hospital. Some people may avoid going to the doctor or the hospital, or lose interest in being with friends and family and in things they used to enjoy. As a result, they may not do well at school, work, or home. How children and families cope with these changes is related to the person's own thoughts and feelings about the illness, injury, or the hospital; reactions can vary, even within the same family.

Click here for the Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress Toolkit for Health Care Providers.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on medical trauma.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on medical trauma.

Refugee and warzone trauma include exposure to war, political violence, or torture. Refugee trauma can be the result of living in a region affected by bombing, shooting, or looting, as well as forced displacement to a new home due to political reasons. Some young refugees have served as soldiers, guerrillas, or other combatants in their home countries, and their traumatic experiences may closely resemble those of combat veterans.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on childhood and adolescent refugee and warzone trauma.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on refugee and warzone violence and childhood trauma.

A disaster is any natural catastrophe (for example, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes) or any fire, flood, or explosion that causes enough damage that local, state, or federal agencies and disaster relief organizations are called into action. Disasters can result from a manmade event (such as a nuclear reactor explosion), but if the damage is caused intentionally, it is classified as an act of terrorism.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on disasters.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on natural disasters and childhood trauma.

Terrorism is defined in a variety of formal, legal ways, but the essential element is the intent to inflict psychological damage on an adversary. The US Department of Defense defines terrorism as "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." Terrorism includes attacks by individuals acting in isolation (for example, sniper attacks) as well as attacks by groups or people acting for groups.

Click here for more NCTSN resources on terrorism.

Consult an NCTSN reading list of research on terrorism and childhood trauma.