Despite a large amount of research on depression and abuse, there is still a controversy on how abuse is measured and on childhood trauma’s effect on the physiological function of adults. Here, we attempt to clarify the relationship between different types of abuse and depression while focusing on childhood abuse. This article, unlike prior research, provides an overview that addresses physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and their psychological impact on the victims. Results show that abuse is a vulnerability factor for a variety of mental and physical health problems and that psychological abuse is strongly associated with depression. More research is needed to understand (a) the role of abuse in the development and maintenance of depression and, in particular, longitudinal studies that also account for the large number of risk and protective factors that influence this relationship and (b) how different types of abuse can influence response to treatment among survivors with depression, in order to provide effective trauma-focused approaches to manage depressive symptoms.

No abstract

No abstract

Saudi Arabia as a traditional society is mostly based on the medical model of disability to interpret autism that increases the stigma and the negative social attitude towards the condition. Additionally, the media plays a big role in portraying the condition as a “disorder” that contributes to the cultural judgment within the country. In this paper, the authors reviewed 57 articles between 2011 and 2021 using the databases of Google, Swisscows, and StartPage. Document analysis was used to analyse the data from both journals and newspapers. Results have shown that the studies exploring autism in media are quite limited with almost nonexistent papers on the roles of media and the medical model of disability in the stigmatisation of autism in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have both signed the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and have a number of acts and policies which support inclusive education for children with disabilities. However, achieving the goals of equitable education at all levels remains a challenge, especially for autistic children. This article reports on the experiences of mothers from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in trying to find schools or autism centres for their autistic adolescent sons. The research is based on in‐depth interviews with 17 mothers, the majority of whom reported that educating their sons is challenging, and that the schools and centres are inadequate or expensive, with the result that a number of participants’ children had to stay at home to the detriment of the boys and their mothers’ wellbeing. The findings are interpreted using the capabilities approach, a normative, evaluative framework on questions of social justice and individual flourishing. A capability evaluation reveals that many mothers experience capability corrosion as a result of gender, cultural, and legal restrictions, as well as difficulties in accessing appropriate education, with respect to three central capabilities: bodily integrity, affiliation, and control over one’s environment.