Five types of child maltreatment (emotional neglect, physical neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse) were investigated for their relationship to the internalizing and externalizing dimensions [14▪▪]. Results showed that the association between child maltreatment and individual psychiatric disorders was fully mediated through the latent internalizing and externalizing dimensions. With regard to gender, the internalizing and externalizing meta-structure was shown to be consistent in men and women [15▪▪], with gender differences in prevalence rates of individual disorders originating from women’s higher mean standing on the underlying internalizing dimension and men’s higher mean standing on the externalizing dimension.
