Minimization of Childhood Maltreatment Is Common and Consequential: Results from a Large, Multinational Sample Using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.
- MacDonald K Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.
- Thomas ML Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.
- Sciolla AF Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.
- Schneider B Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.
- Pappas K Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.
- Bleijenberg G Expert Center Chronic Fatigue, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
- Bohus M Universität Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health, Heidelberg, Germany.
- Bekh B Atlanta VA Medical Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
- Carpenter L Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.
- Carr A University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
- Dannlowski U Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
- Dorahy M Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
- Fahlke C Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Finzi-Dottan R Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
- Karu T Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
- Gerdner A School of Health Sciences, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden.
- Glaesmer H Department of Medical Psychology and Medical, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
- Grabe HJ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Helios Hospital Stralsund, Stralsund, Germany.
- Heins M Expert Center Chronic Fatigue, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
- Kenny DT University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
- Kim D Department of Psychiatry, Hanyang University Medical School, Seoul, South Korea.
- Knoop H Expert Center Chronic Fatigue, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
- Lobbestael J Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
- Lochner C University of Stellenbosch, MRC Unit on Anxiety & Stress Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
- Lauritzen G Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug research (SIRUS), and Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research (SERAF), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
- Ravndal E Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug research (SIRUS), and Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research (SERAF), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
- Riggs S University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America.
- Sar V Koç University Medical School, Istanbul, Turkey.
- Schäfer I Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
- Schlosser N Research Department, Evangelical Hospital Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.
- Schwandt ML National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America.
- Stein MB Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.
- Subic-Wrana C Department für Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of Mainz University, Mainz, Germany.
- Vogel M Division of Substance Use Disorders, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
- Wingenfeld K Department of Psychiatry, Charité University Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.
- 2016-01-28
Published in:
- PloS one. - 2016
Child
Child Abuse
Denial, Psychological
Female
Humans
Male
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Surveys and Questionnaires
English
Childhood maltreatment has diverse, lifelong impact on morbidity and mortality. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) is one of the most commonly used scales to assess and quantify these experiences and their impact. Curiously, despite very widespread use of the CTQ, scores on its Minimization-Denial (MD) subscale-originally designed to assess a positive response bias-are rarely reported. Hence, little is known about this measure. If response biases are either common or consequential, current practices of ignoring the MD scale deserve revision. Therewith, we designed a study to investigate 3 aspects of minimization, as defined by the CTQ's MD scale: 1) its prevalence; 2) its latent structure; and finally 3) whether minimization moderates the CTQ's discriminative validity in terms of distinguishing between psychiatric patients and community volunteers. Archival, item-level CTQ data from 24 multinational samples were combined for a total of 19,652 participants. Analyses indicated: 1) minimization is common; 2) minimization functions as a continuous construct; and 3) high MD scores attenuate the ability of the CTQ to distinguish between psychiatric patients and community volunteers. Overall, results suggest that a minimizing response bias-as detected by the MD subscale-has a small but significant moderating effect on the CTQ's discriminative validity. Results also may suggest that some prior analyses of maltreatment rates or the effects of early maltreatment that have used the CTQ may have underestimated its incidence and impact. We caution researchers and clinicians about the widespread practice of using the CTQ without the MD or collecting MD data but failing to assess and control for its effects on outcomes or dependent variables.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0146058
- PMID 26815788
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/299231
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