This chapter focuses on childhood adversity, and reviews the most commonly researched aspects of early adversity and trauma. The concept of childhood adversity encompasses a diverse range of experiences, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, neglect, bullying by peers, parental loss through separation or death, domestic violence and parental mental illness. While the nature and strength of any association between childhood adversity and psychosis needs further clarification, models have nonetheless been proposed that identify potential mechanisms through which early trauma may increase the risk of later psychosis. It makes sense for these two strands of research (epidemiology and studies of biological, psychological and social mechanisms) to proceed simultaneously. The chapter reviews some of the hypothesised models. A framework that integrates both the biological and psychological levels to model the hypothetical link between childhood adversity and psychosis could be developed by unifying two integrative theories.