Population-based estimates of associations between child maltreatment type: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Context: There is growing interest in better understanding the specificity and magnitude of associations between child maltreatment types in the general population. Objective: To investigate patterns of covariation between child maltreatment types by meta-analyzing studies that assessed experiences of maltreatment using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) in population-representative samples. Data Sources: A systematic review of studies available on PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar was conducted. The bibliographies of studies identified were assessed using forward and backward searching.Study Selection: Included studies used the CTQ, a population-representative sample, and had available data to calculate effect sizes. Data Extraction: Data were converted from pearson correlations to Z statitics, and pooled using a random-effects model.Results: All maltreatment types were positively and significantly associated with one another. Effect size estimates varied from medium to large effects, with (1) physical abuse and emotional abuse (Z = 0.72, 95% CI [.48, .96]); (2) physical neglect and emotional neglect (Z = 0.62, 95% CI [0.43, 0.81]); and (3) emotional abuse and emotional neglect (Z = 0.54, 95% CI [0.35, 0.72]) demonstrating the strongest associations. Limitations: Limitations include the relatively few number of studies included, exclusion of other types of adversity, and those associated with the CTQ—a retrospective, self-report measure that does not account for the concurrence of experiences.Conclusions: These analyses provide important evidence of the associations between types of child maltreatment. The pattern of associations indicate the likelihood of shared risk and point to potential characteristics that may link different types of maltreatment.

Characterizing the dimensional structure of early-life adversity in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study

“…ELA dimensions that indicated the potential presence of caregiver-related emotional maltreatment (i.e., family verbal/physical aggression, family conflict, caregiver lack of support, caregiver substance use / biological caregiver separation) did not load with ELA items related to physical trauma and/or lack of caregiver supervision. These findings are consistent with prior studies identifying caregiver-related emotional maltreatment as a unique dimension that has distinct phenomenology from physical abuse, physical neglect, or supervisory neglect (Lambert et al, 2017;Matsumoto et al, 2020;Nikolaidis et al, 2022). Insufficient caregiver emotional support and supervision also had distinct developmental correlates, with internalizing and externalizing problems being linked only to lack of caregiver support.…”

The Value of Dimensional Models of Early Experience: Thinking Clearly About Concepts and Categories

“…They present a few examples of adversity studies documenting co-occurrence rates in the moderate range. More comprehensive approaches to examining adversity co-occurrenceincluding prevalence rates in population-based studies and meta-analyses-detect associations in the small to moderate range (Matsumoto, Piersiak, Letterie, & Humphreys, 2020;McLaughlin et al, 2012). There is debate about the specific thresholds used to determine multicollinearity, but the cutoff most often used for correlations among predictors that is likely to result in problematic variance inflation is strikingly large (.80) and substantially larger than the observed associations DIMENSIONAL MODELS OF EARLY EXPERIENCE 11 among even the most strongly co-occurring adversities.…”