Differences in Trauma in Boys and Girls 12-13 Years of Age

Effects of childhood trauma on personality in a sample of Chinese adolescents

Child maltreatment (CM) is associated with poor long-term health outcomes. However, knowledge about CM prevalence and related consequences is scarce among adults in South European countries. We examined the self-reported prevalence of five different forms of CM in a community sample of 1,200 Portuguese adults; we compared the results with similar samples from three other countries, using the same instrument. We also explored the relationship between CM and psychological symptoms. Cross-sectional data using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form and the Brief Symptom Inventory were analyzed. Moderate or severe CM exposure was self-reported by 14.7% of the sample, and 67% was exposed to more than one form of CM. Emotional neglect was the most endorsed experience, with women reporting greater emotional abuse and men reporting larger physical abuse. Physical and sexual abuse was less self-reported by Portuguese than by American or German subjects. CM exposure predicted 12.8% of the psychological distress. Emotional abuse was the strongest predictor for psychological symptoms, namely for paranoid ideation, depression, and interpersonal sensitivity. Emotional abuse overlapped with the exposure to all other CM forms, and interacted with physical abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect to predict psychological distress. Low exposure to emotional abuse was directly associated with the effects of physical abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect to predict adult psychological distress. Verbal abuse experiences were frequently reported and had the highest correlations with adult psychological distress. Our results underline the potential hurtful effects of child emotional abuse among Portuguese adults in the community. They also highlight the need to improve prevention and intervention actions to reduce exposure and consequences of CM, particularly emotional abuse.

Childhood trauma in patients with self-reported stress-precipitated seizures.

The risk of developing chronic pain is twice as high among people with a history of childhood maltreatment compared to those without these experiences. It is unclear, however, whether childhood maltreatment might lead to lower or higher perception of pain. In this paper, we investigate the association between childhood maltreatment and pain sensitivity. A sample of 187 Dutch adolescents (ages 16.7 to 20.5) was used from a population-based cohort at high-risk for emotional and behavioral problems screened at age 13. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire short form (CTQ-SF) was completed to measure emotional, physical, sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect. To asses pain sensitivity, a thermal quantitative sensory testing procedure was used which measured pain from hot and cold stimuli. Individuals reporting childhood sexual abuse, emotional abuse or neglect and physical neglect could on average withstand hot and cold pain of 1.03 °C [0.13, 1.84] to 3.20 °C [0.62, 5.97] more across different types of abuse compared to those with no emotional abuse or (physical) neglect history. Physical abuse was not associated with pain sensitivity. The current findings suggest that childhood maltreatment might lead to habituation to painful stimuli as opposed to increased pain sensitivity.

Numerous authors associate child abuse with serious long-term consequences to the general and psychological well-being in particular. Clinical research to date reveals strong correlation between childhood abuse and neglect and anxiety disorders, especially panic disorder. This study was conducted in order to assess the level of emotional, physical and sexual childhood abuse as well as the physical and emotional childhood neglect in 40 adult patients suffering from panic disorder, diagnosed in accordance with the 10th International Classification of Disorders diagnostic criteria, compared with the control group of 40 healthy test subjects without a history of psychiatric disorders, using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. The severity of the clinical manifestation in patients with panic disorder was assessed using the Panic Disorder Severity Scale. There were no significant differences between the groups as to the level of sexual abuse and physical neglect, whereas in the group of patients with panic disorder, the level of physical and emotional abuse was significantly higher, with emphasis on emotional neglect. With regards to the correlation between the severity of the clinical manifestation in patients with panic disorder and the severity of suffered abuse and neglect in childhood age, significant correlation was found in the physical and emotional abuse as well as emotional neglect. There was no significant correlation in the aspect of the physical neglect and sexual abuse. Our research underlines the importance of childhood physical abuse, and especially emotional abuse and emotional neglect in the occurrence of panic disorder later in life.

Childhood traumatic experiences have long-term negative consequences for individual mental and physical well-being. Specifically, depression has proven to be a common consequence of previous trauma in adolescents. Furthermore, the course of depressive symptoms is worse in individuals with a traumatic history. Resilience may mitigate the impact of different types of trauma on depressive symptoms, but there is less information about these associations longitudinally. We therefore examined the effect of childhood trauma, including physical and emotional neglect and abuse, on the change in depressive symptoms over a six-month follow-up in outpatient adolescents, as well as the role of resilience in this association. We used a transdiagnostic approach by examining the depressive symptoms, resilience, and childhood traumatization, regardless of the psychiatric diagnosis, in a naturalistic study setting. Resilience measured with the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), childhood adversities and trauma experiences, including emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, measured with the Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS), and depressive symptoms measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-IA) were self-evaluated at baseline and on six-month follow-up by 297 adolescent participants in a natural study setting. Paired sample t-tests were conducted to measure the change in BDI scores during the follow-up. Mediation and moderation analysis with resilience was performed to investigate the effect of resilience on the association between trauma subtypes and the change in depressive symptoms during the follow-up. Childhood adversities and trauma experiences associated with resilience, the strongest associations being with emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect, as well as with the alleviation of depressive symptoms during the follow-up, except for sexual abuse. The latter effect was mediated by resilience, even after adjustment for several possible confounding factors. Only sexual abuse did not associate with the change in depressive symptoms through resilience. No moderating effect of resilience was observed on the association between trauma or any trauma subtype and the alleviation of depressive symptoms. The broad assessment of childhood traumatic experiences, including emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and physical abuse, together with resilience in relation to depressive symptoms, regardless the psychiatric diagnosis, followed by interventions focused on resilience enhancement is suggested to alleviate depression in outpatient adolescents with such experiences of trauma.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-025-00728-8.

The purpose of the article: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been postulated to negatively affect the development of emotional regulation. However, little is known about specific associations between ACEs, depressive symptoms, and alexithymia or its components [i.e. difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF), difficulty in describing feelings to others (DDF) and externally–oriented thinking (EOT)] in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). The aims of the present cross-sectional study were to (1) compare ACEs (emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse) between alexithymic and non-alexithymic patients with MDD; (2) explore whether specific ACEs, depressive symptoms or the interaction between sex and depressive symptoms predicted TAS-20 or its components.Materials and Methods: The study sample consisted of 186 psychiatric outpatients with MDD (aged 21–61 years, mean 33.87 years, SD 10.88) recruited from the Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital between 2016–2019. Alexithymia and its components were assessed using the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). ACEs were assessed with the Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS).Results: Almost all patients with alexithymia and 80% of non-alexithymic patients reported that they had experienced emotional abuse or neglect, at least sometimes. Approximately 60% of MDD patients reported having experienced physical neglect and 30% described physical abuse. Emotional and physical abuse and neglect predicted DDF score.Conclusions: These findings suggest that among MDD patients, early experiences of emotional and physical abuse and neglect is associated with difficulties in describing feelings in adulthood.

BackgroundAdolescents who have experienced childhood trauma are more likely to have insomnia and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) than adolescents from other ethnic groups. However, little is known about the youth of ethnic minorities. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of childhood trauma and its relationship with insomnia and PLEs in Chinese Zhuang adolescents, focusing on the role of a specific type of trauma and accumulation.MethodsA questionnaire of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), and Chinese Version Community assessment psychic experiences-8 (CCAPE- 8) were all completed by 1,493 Chinese Zhuang adolescents. Chi-square and multivariate logistic regression analyses examined the association between childhood trauma and insomnia/PLEs.ResultsThe incidences of emotional abuse (EA), physical abuse (PA), sexual abuse (SA), emotional neglect (EN), and physical neglect (PN) occurred at rates of 5.63, 5.02, 6.56, 23.98, and 33.15%, respectively. EA, SA, EN, and PN were all positively related to insomnia (OR: 1.314–7.720, all p < 0.05). EA and SA were positively associated with PLEs (OR: 2.131–3.202, all p < 0.001). Adolescents who had experienced three or more types of traumas were more likely to have insomnia (OR = 6.961, p < 0.001) and PLEs (OR = 3.558, p < 0.001).ConclusionThe most common type of childhood trauma is PN. Childhood trauma has the primary effect on insomnia/PLE. A significant dose-response relationship was found between Childhood trauma and insomnia/ PLEs. This association varied depending on the type and accumulation of exposure.

Effects of childhood multiple maltreatment experiences on depression of socioeconomic disadvantaged elderly in Brazil

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been found to be nearly twice as prevalent in females as in males. One hypothesis proposed that abused females were particularly prone to MDD. We aim to examine the sex-specific associations between various types of childhood trauma and MDD. In this study, 290 outpatients diagnosed with MDD were recruited from Beijing Anding Hospital, and 290 healthy volunteers were recruited from neighborhoods nearby the hospital, with sex, age, and family history matched. Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) developed by Bernstein et al. was used to assess the severity of five different types of childhood abuse and neglect. McNemar's test and conditional logistic regression models with potential confounders (i.e., marital status, educational level, and body mass index) controlled were used to explore the sex-specific associations between different types of childhood maltreatment and MDD. In the full sample, patients with MDD showed a significant higher rate of any childhood maltreatment (i.e., emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect). Among females, all types of childhood abuse were statistically significant. For males, significant differences were only found in emotional abuse and in emotional neglect. It would appear that MDD in the outpatients is associated with any type of childhood trauma in women and emotional abuse or neglect in men.

Introduction:Childhood trauma (CT) is associated with chronic widespread pain and high rates of pain sensitization, which are typical of fibromyalgia (FM), and with FM itself. The present investigation was twofold: it analyzed the prevalence of single types and cumulative types of CT in a Spanish sample of women diagnosed with FM with depressive symptoms.Methods:A reanalysis of data gathered at baseline for a randomized clinical trial of treatment methods for depression in 104 women with FM and depressive symptoms was conducted using the reanalysis data of the self-reported Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form before treatment.Results:This study included higher and lower thresholds for identifying CT. Prevalence varied according to the threshold used; lower thresholds highlighted emotional neglect (52%) as higher than all other single subscales, followed by emotional abuse (42%), sexual abuse (42%), physical neglect (30%), and physical abuse (27%). At higher thresholds, emotional abuse was the highest (37%), followed by sexual abuse (31%), physical neglect (30%), physical abuse (27%), and emotional neglect (26%).Conclusions:This study’s results show that CT assessment is a necessary component of intake protocols for patients with FM.

Childhood history of abuse and neglect has been associated with personality disorders and has been observed in subjects with lifetime histories of suicidality and self-injury. Most of these findings have been generated from inpatient clinical samples. This study evaluated self-rated indices of sustained childhood abuse and neglect in an outpatient sample of well-characterized personality disorder subjects (n=182) to determine the relative associations of childhood trauma indices to specific personality disorder diagnoses or clusters and to lifetime history of suicide attempts or gestures. Subjects met criteria for ~2.5 Axis II diagnoses and 24% reported past suicide attempts. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was administered to assess five dimensions of childhood trauma exposure (emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect). Logistic regression was employed to evaluate salient predictors among the trauma measures for each cluster, personality disorder, and history of attempted suicide and self-harm. All analyses controlled for gender distribution. Seventy-eight percent of subjects met dichotomous criteria for some form of childhood trauma; a majority reported emotional abuse and neglect. The dichotomized criterion for global trauma severity was predictive of cluster B, borderline, and antisocial personality disorder diagnoses. Trauma scores were positively associated with cluster A, negatively with cluster C, but were not significantly associated with cluster B diagnoses. Among the specific diagnoses comprising cluster A, paranoid disorder alone was predicted by sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Within cluster B, only antisocial personality disorder showed significant associations with trauma scores, with specific prediction by sexual and physical abuse. For borderline personality disorder, there were gender interactions for individual predictors, with emotional abuse being the only significant trauma predictor, and only in men. History of suicide gestures was associated with emotional abuse in the entire sample and in women only; self-mutilatory behavior was associated with emotional abuse in men. These results suggest that childhood emotional abuse and neglect are broadly represented among personality disorders, and associated with indices of clinical severity among patients with borderline personality disorder. Childhood sexual and physical abuse are highlighted as predictors of both paranoid and antisocial personality disorders. These results help qualify prior observations of the association of childhood sexual abuse with borderline personality disorder.

BackgroundThe aim of this present study was to compare the prevalence and type of trauma experienced by community sample with the outpatient sample with mental disorders.MethodsA total of 354 outpatients, aged 14–35 years old, with mood disorders, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, adjustment disorder and anxiety disorder were recruited from a tertiary psychiatric hospital. A total of 100 healthy controls were recruited from the Singapore general population by snowballing. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) designed to measure childhood trauma and the severity (e.g., physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect and emotional neglect) was administered to participants. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were obtained from interviews with the participants and from outpatients’ medical records, respectively. Independent sample t tests and Chi-square tests were used to investigate the differences between the outpatient and community samples.ResultsOverall the CTQ-SF total and domain scores indicated that outpatient sample experienced higher rate of traumatic life events in childhood than community sample. Two most reported trauma types were emotional abuse (n = 81, 59.1%) and physical neglect (n = 74, 54%) reported by the mood disorder group. In the community sample, emotional neglect (n = 46, 46%) and physical neglect (n = 18, 18%) were the most commonly reported trauma type. Overall outpatient sample (n = 80, 22.6%) and community sample (n = 28, 28%) reported at least one type of trauma.ConclusionThe findings indicate higher rates of CTQ-SF total and domain scores in outpatient sample demonstrating a higher rate of traumatic life events in childhood compared to community sample. Further research in childhood trauma is needed to improve the knowledge in psychiatric clinic practices.

AimsAlthough childhood maltreatment has been widely supported to be a robust predictor of suicide behaviours, the effects of different childhood maltreatment subtypes remain controversial and inconclusive. Moreover, whether the effects differ by sex in urban and rural adolescents is still unknown. This study aimed to quantify the associations between five subtypes of childhood maltreatment and different suicide behaviour involvement.MethodsA multistage cluster sampling method was adopted from April to December 2021 for adolescents aged 12 to 18 across five representative provinces of China. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form was used to measure childhood maltreatment subtypes. Suicide behaviour involvement was classified as none group, suicide ideator, suicide planner and suicide attempter. Confounding variables include demographic characteristics, smoking, drinking alcohol, depression and anxiety.ResultsAmong a total of 18,980 adolescents, 2021 (10.6%) were suicide ideator, 1595 (8.4%) were suicide planner and 1014 (5.3%) were suicide attempter. Rural females had the highest proportion of suicide ideator (13.8%) and suicide planner (11.5%). Multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that five childhood maltreatment subtypes were independently associated with suicide behaviours, except for associations between sexual abuse and suicide ideator as well as suicide planner (p > 0.05). Moreover, these associations differ by sex and residence. After adjusted for interactions of different subtypes, structural equation model indicated that the direct effects of childhood maltreatment subtypes on suicide behaviours from high to low were emotional abuse (β = 0.363, p < 0.001), physical abuse (β = 0.100, p < 0.001) and sexual abuse (β = 0.033, p = 0.003), while the effects of physical neglect and emotional neglect were not significant (p > 0.05).ConclusionsFive subtypes of childhood maltreatment have specific and non-equivalence associations with suicide behaviours. Emotional abuse may have the strongest effect, and sexual abuse have an acute effect on suicide behaviours. Suicide prevention programs for Chinese adolescents could focus on those who experienced emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Furthermore, strategies should be tailored by sex and residence, and rural females deserve more attention.

The general aim of the present study was the exploration of the relationships between childhood trauma subdimensions (physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect), unbalanced family functioning patterns (disengaged, enmeshed, rigid, and chaotic), and love addiction. A sample of 910 individuals (76.6% female; Mage = 30 years, SD = 10.55) engaged in a romantic relationship participated in the research and completed the Love Addiction Inventory-Short Form, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales-IV, and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form. Among the childhood trauma subdimensions, emotional and physical abuse showed significant and positive associations with love addiction levels. Furthermore, the path analysis showed that unbalanced family functioning patterns parallelly mediated the relationship between emotional (enmeshed, rigid, and chaotic patterns) and physical abuse (chaotic patterns) and love addiction. Gender as a covariate was controlled for. The present study offers insight into the mechanisms by which specific forms of childhood trauma could lead to love addiction in adulthood. The findings offer valuable insights for developing customized interventions when working with individuals struggling with love addiction, as well as for implementing effective preventive activities for the condition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).