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Aim: We investigated whether adolescents who had recently disclosed sexual abuse or family violence displayed more psychological trauma symptoms and physical health complaints than unaffected controls. We also investigated to what degree physical health complaints were associated with trauma symptoms in these abuse victims.Methods: Abuse, trauma symptoms and physical health complaints were assessed during face-to-face interviews with 40 sexual abuse victims and 35 family violence victims aged 10-18 years. They had all attended forensic interviews at the Barnehus in Oslo, a specialised Norwegian police unit where evidence is gathered in adolescent-friendly surroundings, from October 2016 to November 2018. Their symptoms were compared with 41 controls from the general population. Linear regression analyses investigated associations between trauma symptoms and physical health complaints.Results: Sexually abused adolescents displayed higher levels of post-traumatic stress reactions, depression, dissociation and physical health complaints than unaffected controls. Family violence victims displayed higher levels of post-traumatic stress reactions. Trauma symptoms were associated with physical health complaints, and these were most prominent in the adolescents with the highest burden of symptoms.Conclusion: Based on the high burden of symptoms revealed, clinical examinations of abused adolescents should include a systematic assessment of trauma symptoms and physical health complaints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child maltreatment is associated with a host of adverse consequences. Few studies exist that map maltreated children's performance on neurocognitive tests particularly sensitive to brain and behavior associations. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether maltreated children differed in their executive functioning compared to their nonmaltreated peers, and if they did so in specific ways. Tasks aimed at measuring set shifting, spatial working memory, and inhibition were administered. Trauma-related symptomatology was further assessed to study the potential effect of maltreatment-related psychopathology on executive functioning. A univariate analysis of variance showed that maltreated children ( n = 21) performed significantly poorer compared to their nonmaltreated peers ( n = 22) on the Spatial Working Memory task. Symptoms of trauma-related psychopathology were not associated with performance on the executive functions tests. In conclusion, maltreatment was not associated with a global deficit in children's executive functions. Thus, when considering maltreated children's cognitive functioning, specific measures of executive functions should be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]