Childhood maltreatment and poor functional outcomes at the transition to adulthood: a comparison of prospective informant- and retrospective self-reports of maltreatment

Abstract

Purpose Growing evidence suggests that prospective informant-reports and retrospective self-reports of childhood maltreatment may be differentially associated with adult psychopathology. However, it remains unknown how associations for these two maltreatment reporting types compare when considering functional outcomes. The present study compared associations between childhood maltreatment and functional outcomes at age 18 years using these two methods. Methods We used data from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 2232 children born in England and Wales in 1994–1995. Maltreatment prior to age 12 years was assessed prospectively (during multiple home visits between birth and age of 12 years based on interviews with caregivers, researcher observations, and information from practitioners where child protection referrals were made) and retrospectively (at age 18 via self-report on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire). Nine functional outcomes were measured at age 18, forming two variables capturing: (i) psychosocial and (ii) vocational disadvantage. Results Among the 2054 participants with available data, childhood maltreatment was associated with poorer functional outcomes regardless of whether this was reported only prospectively, only retrospectively, or both. Stronger associations with psychosocial disadvantage arose in the context of retrospective recall by participants (OR = 8.25, 95% CI 4.93–13.82) than prospective reports by informants (OR = 2.03, 95% CI 1.36–3.04) of maltreatment. Conversely, associations with vocational disadvantage were comparable for both prospective informant-reports (OR = 2.19, 95% CI 1.42–3.38) and retrospective self-reports (OR = 1.93, 95% CI 1.33–2.81) of maltreatment. Conclusion Results highlight the importance of considering the maltreatment report type used when interpreting the functional consequences of childhood maltreatment.

Association of adverse childhood experiences and precuneus volume with intrusive reexperiencing in autism spectrum disorder

“…There were significant positive correlations between the severity of adverse life events experienced in childhood and intrusive reexperiencing in both individuals with ASD and TD subjects in this study. Exposure to traumatic life events in childhood is associated with the appearance of mental illness in adulthood (Latham et al, 2020; McCrory et al, 2017). Previous studies have reported that individuals with maltreatment experience in childhood have an increased risk of PTSD in adulthood (Lu et al, 2020).…”

Childhood Socioeconomic Status and Depressive Symptoms of Young Adults: Mediating Role of Childhood Trauma

“…One study in 2017 showed that suffering multiple traumas was likely to produce various emotional symptoms, so it is necessary to clarify the difference between a single traumatic incident and multiple traumatic incidents in future studies ( 53 ). Moreover, researchers should combine prospective and retrospective investigations of childhood trauma to better evaluate the impact of childhood trauma ( 54 ).…”

Childhood sexual abuse and pervasive problems across multiple life domains: Findings from a five-decade study

“…Third, although all other measures were collected prospectively, exposure to CSA was recorded retrospectively at age 26 years. Research comparing prospective and retrospective reports of childhood maltreatment in the same sample has shown that the two methods identify largely distinct groups of people: a significant proportion of people with prospectively documented evidence of child maltreatment do not later report it, and a significant proportion of those who retrospectively report child maltreatment do not have corroborating prospective records (Baldwin et al, 2019;Danese & Widom, 2020;Latham et al, 2021;Najman et al, 2020). This evidence has led to questions about the veracity of retrospective reports of childhood maltreatment (Widom, 2019), but it is important to note that both prospective and retrospective methods have features that can lead to under-and over-reporting (discussed in Baldwin et al, 2019).…”