Mental health concerns and suicide attributable to childhood maltreatment

What's the issue?

Experience of childhood maltreatment is recognised as a risk factor for mental health concerns, mental illness, and suicide. Recent nationally representative Australian data shows that 62% of Australians have experienced childhood maltreatment in their lives, placing a large proportion of the population at an increased risk for mental health concerns, mental illness and suicide.¹

Childhood maltreatment includes experience of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse; emotional or physical neglect; and domestic violence before the age of 18 years.

Often people who are exposed to childhood maltreatment are exposed to other factors linked to the development of mental health concerns and suicide such as experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage or other environmental and genetic factors. Researchers aimed to determine how much of the burden of mental illness and suicide is attributable to childhood maltreatment and not to other personal and environmental influences.

What was done?

Researchers used data from three Australian sources to determine the burden of mental disorders in Australia attributable to childhood maltreatment.

The researchers did this by:

• Estimating the relationship between maltreatment and mental disorders based on a 2023 meta-analysis.²
• Examining maltreatment data from the 2021 Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) to determine the prevalence of maltreatment.
• Calculating the population attributable fractions (PAFs) which show the number of mental disorders that are attributable to childhood maltreatment.
• Analysing the number of cases of maltreatment from the 2020-2022 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing.
• Estimating the burden of mental disorders from data within the 2023 National Burden of Disease study.
• Comparing the PAFs prevalence of mental disorders outlined in the 2020-2022 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing and the 2023 National Burden of Disease study.

What was found?

Researchers found that more than 1.8 million cases of depressive, anxiety, and substance use disorders could be prevented through the prevention of childhood maltreatment.

Results showed that childhood maltreatment was attributable to 41% of suicide attempts in Australia, 39% of cases of self-harm, and 21% for depression.

The researcher’s analysis also examined years of life lost or adjusted due to disability.

Results showed that childhood maltreatment was responsible for 66,143 years of life lost (predominately through suicide), and 184,636 disability adjusted life years.

Why are the findings important?

Child maltreatment should be treated as a public health priority. Prevention of childhood maltreatment has potential to avert a significant portion of mental health concerns, mental illness and suicide.

Lead researcher Dr Lucinda Grummit was quoted as saying, “The results are devasting and are an urgent call to invest in prevention – not just giving individual support to children and families, but wider policies to reduce stress experienced by families”.

In Australia, there are a number of programs and services targeted to the prevention of childhood maltreatment. Potential exists for the expansion of these programs as part of a further preventative approach.