It has been stated that all the studies on child mistreatment resulting in mental health problems have found that such cases have a history of abuse.

But these reports have been questioned regarding their reliability on the grounds that past maltreatment goes unreported usually, and the memories of any such event can be reconstructed and that even the reports can be dicey at times.

According to Dr. Kate M. Scott, and team from the University of Otago–Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, national child protection agency records were related to the data from a nationwide representative community study of mental disorders.

This survey observed 2,144 youngsters among which 221 were reported to have some past related to child maltreatment as per the records of child protection agency.

In the survey further, the demographic and socioeconomic factors were considered based on any history of abuse or neglect. Then the relation of the past was sketched with five individual mental disorders such as anxiety, mood and substance abuse conditions. This was observed in for the previous year and for the lifetime till now.

It was then concluded that the most noticeable connection was with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Also, it was found that maltreatment and the memory of maltreatment is associated with the young adulthood mental health disorders.