Dear Colleagues,

The effects of early life trauma on multiple neurobiological processes such as genetics, epigenetics, cellular, immune, endocrine, brain and metabolic function, neurocircuitry, and neurochemistry is well-established in the literature. However, the consequences and co-morbidities of these neurobiological changes are still being realized. There is now converging evidence to support the theory that offspring are affected by previous generations’ exposure to trauma. Intergenerational risk is transferred not only through the genome, DNA methylation, and histone modification, but also through chemical exchanges in the womb during critical phases of brain development and parental modelling after birth. Considering the current COVID-19 pandemic, the global implications regarding the long-term effects of prenatal stress and trauma, and intergenerational transmission of trauma, are extremely topical. Understanding the neurobiological changes associated with exposures to trauma is necessary for developing individualized and targeted interventions to prevent the long-term repercussions of trauma in both the individual and their future progeny. Understanding and promoting factors that contribute to resilience will be important for interrupting intergenerational transmissions of trauma.

The goal of this Special Issue in Children is to highlight recent advances in trauma research examining the impact of early life traumatic experiences on children and adolescents. Reviews and/or original research articles may be focused on the basic sciences, clinical research, or both. Research involving neurobiological changes associated with early life trauma, comorbidities, intergenerational transmission, social transmission, interventions, and resiliency factors are welcomed. It is the hope that the articles submitted to this Special Issue will help to bring the field one step closer to finding solutions to the intergenerational impact of trauma.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jillian Vinall Miller
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• trauma
• posttraumatic stress symptoms
• posttraumatic stress disorder
• adverse early childhood experiences
• neurobiology
• brain
• stress
• neuroimaging
• genetics
• epigenetics
• hormones
• neurotransmitters
• intergenerational transmission
• parent
• pregnancy
• pandemic
• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• child
• adolescent
• youth