Only since the 1990s have researchers and health officials known about the alarmingly high prevalence of childhood trauma, and the harm it can cause. Trauma during childhood has been associated with numerous mental disorders and physical illnesses among children, adolescents, and adults, and a growing number of experts are calling it a public health crisis. The prevalence of childhood trauma is covered, as is how it affects children and adolescents, the long-term damage it can cause, and the urgent need for solutions to the problem.