Childhood Sexual Trauma Severity Measurement: Redundancy in the Effects of Trauma Duration and Developmental Timing on Adverse Adult Outcomes

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Abstract
Research suggests that the impact of childhood sexual trauma (CST) on adult well-being varies in relation to characteristics of CST experiences (e.g., age of onset and duration/frequency) that influence the degree of trauma severity. Yet there remains a need for a CST severity measure that consistently delineates survivors with an elevated risk of adverse adult outcomes (AAOs) and accounts for correlations between severity characteristics. We compared two theory-based, categorical proxy measures of CST severity (duration and developmental timing) in their relationship with three AAOs, among a national probability sample of U.S. adult CST survivors (N = 568). We found a strong relationship between CST duration and developmental timing (p < 0.001), and redundancy in their impact on AAOs (i.e., no meaningful difference in how well they predicted AAOs). Participants with more chronic CST (≥4 years duration or occurring across childhood and adolescence) were twice as likely to report AAOs as other participants. Findings support the importance of assessing trauma chronicity in research and practice, to focus prevention and intervention strategies on CST survivors with the greatest long-term health risk. A categorical CST duration measure offers a theory-based assessment strategy that accounts for both the temporal and developmental effects of trauma severity on health outcomes.
Funding Information
  • National Institutes of Health (MH51523)
  • National Institutes of Health (MH105180)
  • National Institutes of Health (HD085780)
  • National Institutes of Health (MH120512)
  • P.F. & Nellie Buck Yerex Graduate Scholarship

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