Trauma can have both acute and insidious effects upon children's mental health. We present four articles, each of which offers a new perspective on this important topic. As Daniel Pine points out, in the first paper, as many as one in five children in the developed world can expect to experience a truly traumatic event, while half those in developing countries may do so. Such experiences can be either personal – such as emotional or sexual abuse – or impersonal – being shot or blown up in a conflict of which one understands little, except the misery it brings. How do children cope? We know that there are at least two important influences that moderate the impact of trauma on the developing child: the persistence and severity of the experience, and the degree of social support available. Beyond these broad generalisations, little is understood about what should be done or what could be done to minimise the long-term consequences of growing up in an environment characterised by cruelty, exploitation and death.