This guide aims to share some of the latest research findings with those who are working every day to support children who have experienced complex trauma in the form of maltreatment.

Our previous guide on Childhood Trauma and the Brain gave an overview of how childhood trauma can affect brain development, and how this in turn can lead to mental health problems. Here, we unpack in more detail how these brain changes can affect a child’s social world, and why this is important in helping us understand the mental health of children and young people who have experienced maltreatment. Supportive social relationships are key to good mental health for everyone. To understand why maltreatment increases a child’s risk of later mental health problems, it is important that we consider how such experiences can affect social relationships. We know that early abuse and neglect can impact brain development; we’re now learning that this can affect the way a child interacts with the people around them, and how people in turn respond to a child. Over time, this can mean that a child’s social world can become more stressful, with fewer trusted relationships – increasing a child’s vulnerability to mental health problems.

However, none of this is set in stone. Understanding how past maltreatment affects a child’s current and future social world can help us develop more effective ways for a child to build and maintain supportive social relationships. This can ultimately reduce the risk of mental health problems developing. In this guide, we consider how adults and systems can help build and scaffold a better social world for children. Social workers, foster carers, adoptive parents and teachers can all play a role, as can policy makers, funders and commissioners.