MALTREATMENT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does maltreatment mean? 

• MALTREATMENT (noun)
  The noun MALTREATMENT has 1 sense:

1. cruel or inhumane treatment

  Familiarity information: MALTREATMENT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MALTREATMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cruel or inhumane treatment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

abuse; ill-treatment; ill-usage; maltreatment

Context example:

the child showed signs of physical abuse

Hypernyms ("maltreatment" is a kind of...):

mistreatment (the practice of treating (someone or something) badly)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "maltreatment"):

child abuse (the physical or emotional or sexual mistreatment of children)

child neglect (failure of caretakers to provide adequate emotional and physical care for a child)

persecution (the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or religion))

cruelty; inhuman treatment (a cruel act; a deliberate infliction of pain and suffering)

Derivation:

maltreat (treat badly)

 Context examples 

Understanding these reactions may help in identifying and treating caregivers at risk for child maltreatment and other problematic behaviors.

(Study identifies brain patterns underlying mothers’ responses to infant cries, National Institutes of Health)

They found that individuals with higher number of genetic variants associated with autism are more likely to report childhood maltreatment, self-harm and suicidal ideation.

(Genetic variants for autism linked to higher rates of self-harm and childhood maltreatment, University of Cambridge)

He could not believe that a sane editor could be guilty of such maltreatment, and his favorite hypothesis was that his poems must have been doctored by the office boy or the stenographer.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Previous studies by the Cambridge team established that autistic individuals experience higher levels of self-harm, including suicidal thoughts and feelings, and higher rates of childhood maltreatment.

(Genetic variants for autism linked to higher rates of self-harm and childhood maltreatment, University of Cambridge)

People with a higher genetic likelihood of autism are more likely to report higher childhood maltreatment, self-harm and suicidal thoughts according to a new study by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

(Genetic variants for autism linked to higher rates of self-harm and childhood maltreatment, University of Cambridge)

The team calculated the genetic likelihood for autism in 100,000 individuals from the UK Biobank Study who had their DNA analysed and who had also provided self-reported information about childhood maltreatment, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.

(Genetic variants for autism linked to higher rates of self-harm and childhood maltreatment, University of Cambridge)

Those with the highest genetic predisposition to autism on average have a 28% increase in childhood maltreatment, and a 33% increase in self-harm and suicidal ideation, compared to those with the lowest genetic predisposition to autism.

(Genetic variants for autism linked to higher rates of self-harm and childhood maltreatment, University of Cambridge)

We suspect this association reflects that genes partly influence how many autistic traits you have, and some autistic traits such as difficulties in social understanding may lead to a person to be vulnerable to maltreatment.

(Genetic variants for autism linked to higher rates of self-harm and childhood maltreatment, University of Cambridge)