The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) used with adolescents - methodological report from clinical and community samples.

Purpose: The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) is a widely used retrospective screening tool for childhood maltreatment in adults. Its properties are less known in adolescents. The objective was to investigate acceptability and psychometric properties when used in adolescents. Method: A community sample of adolescents (n=1885) in four waves (from 13 or 14 to 17 years old) and a clinical sample (n=74, mean age 18), both from Sweden, were used to assess acceptability and different aspects of validity and reliability. Results: The CTQ-SF was found to be well-accepted. As expected, the community sample scored lower than the clinical sample on all maltreatment-scales and showed stability over-time. In the community sample, internal consistencies were substantial or excellent for all scales except Physical neglect, and in the clinical sample this was found for all scales. One-year test-retest consistencies of subscales were substantial or almost perfect, and for all scales, they increased from early to mid-adolescence. Directed inconsistencies on item level decreased from early to mid-adolescence. Convergent validity was shown in relation to scales on family climate, parental relations, and emotional health also from early adolescence. Discriminant analyses showed more moderate discriminatory ability although almost seven times better than by-chance. Conclusions: The CTQ is well accepted and can be trusted to provide consistent and valid self-reports from the age of 14 on childhood maltreatment. Some caution is advised when used with younger adolescents, since the test-retest stability is then weaker, and the interpretation of the M/D scale is more ambiguous.

Child maltreatment and substance-use-related negative consequences: Longitudinal trajectories from early to mid adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment is associated with adult substance use disorders (i.e. alcohol and/or illicit drug use). Little is known about the behavioral pathways characterizing adolescent substance users who were subjected to childhood maltreatment. Here, we investigate the longitudinal trajectories of substance-use-related negative consequences (SURNCs) in adolescence in relation to childhood maltreatment. METHOD: We drew the data (N = 1515) from the longitudinal multidisciplinary research program LoRDIA (Longitudinal Research on Development In Adolescence), of which 406 reported substance use and were included in the presented analyses. The data were collected via self-report questionnaires in classroom settings at three time points (mean age: 13.5, 14.4 and 15.0). We obtained information for childhood maltreatment using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) and data of frequencies of SURNC with a questionnaire scale. RESULTS: Estimates from zero-inflated Poisson growth curve model revealed no baseline differences in SURNCs across children reporting none, single, or multiple maltreatment before the age of twelve. However, children experiencing multiple maltreatment displayed a greater increase in the frequency of SURNCs during the transition from early to mid adolescence than did those reporting no maltreatment. These estimates were only partly influenced by the inclusion of frequency of alcohol and substance drug use to the model. CONCLUSIONS: These findings imply that children suffering maltreatment are at a higher risk of experiencing SURNCs, a factor known to elevate the risk of substance use disorders later in life, as they transition from early to mid adolescence.

Evidence for a relationship between child maltreatment and absenteeism among high-school students in Sweden.

School absenteeism is a potent predictor of academic failure. Maltreated adolescents have been found to be more absent from school compared to their peers. However, it is scarcely studied in what degree a general population of students with high levels of school absenteeism has been exposed to child maltreatment. Furthermore, it is not known if maltreated school-absentees have specific characteristics compared to not-maltreated absentees. In this article, the first objective was to present and compare the prevalence of six types of child maltreatment in a general population of high school students reporting no, moderate or excessive absenteeism. The second objective was to compare maltreated and not-maltreated students who report absenteeism in respect to mental health, perceived school environment and peer victimization in school. Data from 667 girls and 649 boys (mean age 14.3) was used from the longitudinal multidisciplinary research program LoRDIA (Longitudinal Research on Development In Adolescence). Data was collected via self-report questionnaires in classroom settings. All six types of child maltreatment were overrepresented among absentees. Roughly 25% of absentees reported one subtype of maltreatment (16% in the total population) and a mean of 22% of absentees reported two or more types of maltreatment (11% in the total population). Maltreated absentees reported more mental health problems, personal harassment and worse relationship with their teachers than not-maltreated absentees. There might be specific correlates of school absenteeism among maltreated adolescents and professionals involved in preventing school-absenteeism should be made aware of the relationship between maltreatment and absenteeism.

Gender differences in the association between emotional maltreatment with mental, emotional, and behavioral problems in Swedish adolescents.

Emotional maltreatment is a common form of child abuse with a powerful negative impact on mental health. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of emotional maltreatment on mental health and mental well-being in a general population of Swedish 12- to 13-year old girls and boys. Data was collected via self-report questionnaires in classroom settings from 1134 students. Emotional maltreatment had significant effects on mental health and mental well-being for both girls and boys. Moreover, there were significant interaction effects between gender and levels of emotional maltreatment. Girls reported decreased mental health and mental well-being at lower degrees of emotional maltreatment compared to boys. Furthermore, girls reported larger decreases in mental health in response to exposure of emotional maltreatment. For internalizing symptoms, mental well-being and psychosomatic symptoms, exposure level of emotional maltreatment seemed to magnify the gender differences. For externalizing symptoms, there were no differences between girls and boys in the group reporting no emotional maltreatment and the increase in externalizing symptoms were of equal magnitude for both genders. Given the impact of emotional maltreatment on mental health in the general population, results from this study implies that a trauma-informed perspective is necessary in understanding gender differences in mental health in early adolescence. Further research is needed in order to understand the underlying processes generating the differences in girls and boys responses to emotional maltreatment.