Development of a Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS): a relational-socioecological framework for surveying attachment security and childhood trauma history

The present editorial introduces selected research for a special issue covering the 15th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) 2017, ‘Child Maltreatment across the Lifespan’. Unfortunately, childhood maltreatment is highly prevalent around the world. Exposure to child maltreatment is associated with a considerable risk of developing a wide range of psychopathologies. Thus, preventing child maltreatment and offering early treatment to victims is an important and promising area in reducing the risk of psychopathology. The 10 articles included in the special issue focus on different important areas related to the topic of child maltreatment. These include a biological and systemic understanding of maltreatment, a globalization perspective, and contributions on diagnosis and treatment, with implications for clinical practice. Furthermore, the special issue includes an update on ICD-11 and implications associated with the implementation of ICD-11. Future research recommendations are provided to underline the enduring need to promote and undertake research into all aspects of child maltreatment.

Section: Childhood Maltreatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child maltreatment across the lifespan

Hansen

Olff

2017

“…For this reason, Frewen et al (2013) developed the Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS), an innovative assessment tool designed to measure instances of child abuse as well as warmth, security and support within the family, thus providing a socio-ecological relational perspective. This feature enables the evaluation of the subjective perception of the traumatic relational context, rather than only the frequency and severity of such experiences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Italian translation and cross-cultural comparison with the Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS)

Simonelli

Sacchi

Cantoni

et al. 2017

Background: The Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS) is a computer-administered survey designed to assess retrospectively the socio-ecological context in which instances of child abuse may have occurred. To date, studies supporting the validity of the CARTS have only been undertaken in English-speaking North American populations. Validation projects in other countries and cross-cultural comparisons are therefore warranted. Objective: Develop and preliminarily evaluate the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the CARTS on college students and compare such observations to data acquired from Canadian students. Method: Seventy-nine undergraduate students from the University of Padua (Italy) completed an Italian translation of the CARTS as well as measures of childhood experiences, mental health and attachment, responses to which were compared to those obtained in 288 Canadian students who completed the CARTS in English. Results: Internal consistency and convergent validity with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and Parental Bonding Instrument were found to be acceptable for the Italian translation. Within the Italian sample, correlation analyses suggested that CARTS Mother ratings referring to attachment and abuse were associated with romantic attachment, whereas CARTS Father ratings were significantly correlated to PTSD symptoms and other symptoms of psychopathology-distress. Significant differences between Italian and Canadian students across the relationship types for the CARTS abuse and attachment scales were found, indicating that Italian students rated their mothers and fathers as simultaneously less abusive, but also less as a source of secure attachment. Conclusions: The results of this preliminary study seem to suggest convergent validity of the Italian CARTS and the association between childhood attachment-related experiences and romantic attachment. Cultural variations were identified between Canadian and Italian students in both attachment and abuse scales. Future studies to investigate cross-cultural variations in the relational context of childhood abuse and in order to boost Italian CARTS psychometric features are warranted.

“…physical and emotional abuse of self or other family members, sexual abuse towards the respondent, and ‘bad things’ possibly occurring), in addition to the warmth, security, and supportiveness of the respondents’ family, peers, and other caregivers. A number of face-valid subscales have exhibited good psychometric characteristics and convergent validity with related questionnaires, described previously (Frewen et al, 2013, 2015). An advantage of the questionnaire format of the CARTS, termed a ‘relationally-contextualized approach’ to childhood trauma assessment, is that CARTS items measure not only what occurred (e.g.…”

Section: Computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Scrementioning

confidence: 77%

“…The CARTS (Frewen, Brown, De Pierro, D’Andrea, & Schore, 2015; Frewen et al, 2013) is a self-report instrument designed to measure occurrences of childhood maltreatment (i.e. physical and emotional abuse of self or other family members, sexual abuse towards the respondent, and ‘bad things’ possibly occurring), in addition to the warmth, security, and supportiveness of the respondents’ family, peers, and other caregivers.…”

Section: Computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Scrementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A limitation of prior studies using the CARTS, however, is that they have been comprised entirely by English-speaking samples (Frewen et al, 2013, 2015) whereas, as has been discussed above, childhood abuse and neglect are global issues. Accordingly, the ISTSS Global Collaboration has sought to both validate and translate the CARTS into multiple languages, including to date: Croatian, Dutch, French, Georgian, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, and Spanish.…”

Section: Computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Scrementioning

confidence: 99%

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The global collaboration on traumatic stress

Schnyder

Schäfer

Aakvaag

et al. 2017

Trauma is a global issue. The great majority of the global burden of disease arising from mental health conditions occurs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), among populations in political, economic, and/or cultural transition and those struck by forced migration. These mental health problems frequently arise as a result of traumatic events that adversely affect adults, children, and families, including war, mass violence, natural disasters, and accidents. In response to this, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) launched the Global Initiative to have a stronger global impact on trauma-related issues. As part of this initiative, the Global Collaboration was established by representatives of eight professional organizations active in the field of traumatic stress. The group decided to focus on childhood abuse and neglect as its first collaboration. They collected guidelines worldwide, providing the basis for a synthesized core guide for prevention and treatment that can be customized for specific cultural contexts. The resulting ‘Internet information on Childhood Abuse and Neglect’ (iCAN) is a comprehensive guide for adults who have been affected by childhood abuse and neglect, as well as for the survivors’ significant others. It is currently provided in eight languages, and is freely available at the homepage of ISTSS and other websites. A second achievement of the Global Collaboration is the validation of the Computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS), a self-report measure designed to measure occurrences of childhood maltreatment, and its translation into multiple languages, including Croatian, Dutch, French, Georgian, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, and Spanish. A study is currently planned to collect normative responses to the questionnaire, and to conduct cross-cultural comparisons. The Global Collaboration’s success may be seen as an encouraging step towards a truly global structure in the field of traumatic stress.