Complex posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms
Gallagher, Moreland, Watters & Yalch (2022) published “Relative Effects of Childhood Trauma, Intimate Partner Violence, and Other Traumatic Life Events on Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms” in Traumatology. Here’s the abstract:
Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) follows persistent and repeated trauma and is a serious mental health problem among women. One of the strongest predictors of CPTSD symptoms is childhood trauma, especially child abuse and neglect, both of which are traumas that tend to be persistent and repeated. CPTSD is also associated with intimate partner violence (IPV; physical, emotional, and/or sexual violence in an intimate relationship), a trauma that, similar to child abuse and neglect, is also persistent and repeated. However, it is unclear how child abuse/neglect and IPV may jointly influence CPTSD symptoms vis-à-vis other traumatic events. In this study, we examined the relative effects of child abuse/neglect and IPV on CPTSD symptoms over and above other traumatic events in a sample of women (N = 553) using a partial least squares approach to multiple regression and structural equation modeling. Results indicated that in general childhood trauma was the strongest predictor of CPTSD symptoms. However, when we analyzed specific aspects of child abuse, child neglect, and IPV, we found that childhood emotional abuse was the primary predictor of CPTSD symptoms over and above the effects of other traumatic life events, with sexual and emotional IPV also having small effects. These results highlight the salient effects of childhood emotional trauma on CPTSD symptoms among women, underscoring the importance of assessing for this in women presenting for treatment of CPTSD.
What is most striking is the finding that childhood emotional abuse is a more consistent predictor than child physical or sexual abuse, child neglect, or intimate partner violence. Although clients are often asked about specific experiences of neglect, abuse, and intimate partner violence, this work suggests the need to assess childhood emotional abuse.