The masterly way in which the authors of Wednesday's Child have woven together the quantitative and qualitative data of their series of research projects, carried out over a period of 20 years under the directorship of George Brown and Tirril Harris, must be the envy of researchers investigating the psychological and social influences of childhood experiences on adult life. Although the book often makes disturbing reading, the women's poignant accounts give meaning to the bare statistical fact that as many as one in four ordinary women in the community have been subject to severe neglect or abuse in childhood. This doubles the likelihood of their suffering from clinical depression in adult life, independently of other adverse family circumstances such as parental loss, parental conflict, poverty or parental psychiatric state. Furthermore, the greater the number of abuses, be it neglect, physical or sexual, in childhood, the higher the risk of depression in adulthood.

By asking the women to give detailed descriptions of their childhood experiences, corroborated in a novel way by independent interviews with their sisters, it has proved possible to identify the factors that link neglect and abuse with later depression. The authors found that women's experience of neglectful parenting, including role-reversal and antipathy, and physical, sexual and psychological abuse extinguishes their sense of self-worth and damages their view of human relationships. Social support, along with coping strategies, are two of the main factors identified as protecting women from the effects of adverse childhood experiences — and yet the very nature of the legacy of these experiences makes it difficult for them to establish supportive relationships, leaving them vulnerable to feelings of isolation and depression.

As we come to the end of the century of the child and the dawn of a new millennium, the authors stress the importance of providing a safe, nurturing environment in which parents and children feel that they are valued and can develop a sense of trust and in which as adults they can adopt a meaningful role for themselves. This is a duty for society as well as for families individually and as such has implications for social policy. We owe it to the women whose innermost secrets have been chronicled in Wednesday's Child and to the women, men and children whose stories have gone untold.