Editorial: Childhood traumatic experiences: new clinical perspectives and interventions

An overwhelming number of children worldwide are exposed to traumatic experiences, such as psychological, physical and verbal abuse, as well as parental neglect, which impact their psychosocial functioning and development. The parent-child relationship is highly impactful for the holistic development of children and youths. For this reason, adverse, neglectful, and traumatic exposures might impact individuals’ emotional wellbeing, quality of adult relationships and growth. Indeed, neglect is characterized as a kind of emotional, educational, and physical abuse, due to its long-term impact. Also, those who have experienced multiple forms of abuse over an extended period may suffer from a greater number and more severe set of symptoms associated with the trauma. Abused children carry some of such experiences throughout their adolescence, a multifaceted phase of individuals, characterized from physical, psychological, and social development. Relational problems, behavioral difficulties and psychological vulnerabilities often stem from early traumatic experience roughens the process of developing one’s sense of self as well as resilience.