Abstract
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.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0146058 |
| Journal | PLoS One |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2016 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Medicine(all)
Cite this
Minimization of childhood maltreatment is common and consequential : Results from a large, multinational sample using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. / MacDonald, Kai; Thomas, Michael L.; Sciolla, Andres F; Schneider, Beacher; Pappas, Katherine; Bleijenberg, Gijs; Bohus, Martin; Bekh, Bradley; Carpenter, Linda; Carr, Alan; Dannlowski, Udo; Dorahy, Martin; Fahlke, Claudia; Finzi-Dottan, Ricky; Karu, Tobi; Gerdner, Arne; Glaesmer, Heide; Grabe, Hans Jörgen; Heins, Marianne; Kenny, Dianna T.; Kim, Daeho; Knoop, Hans; Lobbestael, Jill; Lochner, Christine; Lauritzen, Grethe; Ravndal, Edle; Riggs, Shelley; Sar, Vedat; Schäfer, Ingo; Schlosser, Nicole; Schwandt, Melanie L.; Stein, Murray B.; Subic-Wrana, Claudia; Vogel, Mark; Wingenfeld, Katja.
In: PLoS One, Vol. 11, No. 1, e0146058, 01.01.2016.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Minimization of childhood maltreatment is common and consequential
T2 - Results from a large, multinational sample using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire
AU - MacDonald, Kai
AU - Thomas, Michael L.
AU - Sciolla, Andres F
AU - Schneider, Beacher
AU - Pappas, Katherine
AU - Bleijenberg, Gijs
AU - Bohus, Martin
AU - Bekh, Bradley
AU - Carpenter, Linda
AU - Carr, Alan
AU - Dannlowski, Udo
AU - Dorahy, Martin
AU - Fahlke, Claudia
AU - Finzi-Dottan, Ricky
AU - Karu, Tobi
AU - Gerdner, Arne
AU - Glaesmer, Heide
AU - Grabe, Hans Jörgen
AU - Heins, Marianne
AU - Kenny, Dianna T.
AU - Kim, Daeho
AU - Knoop, Hans
AU - Lobbestael, Jill
AU - Lochner, Christine
AU - Lauritzen, Grethe
AU - Ravndal, Edle
AU - Riggs, Shelley
AU - Sar, Vedat
AU - Schäfer, Ingo
AU - Schlosser, Nicole
AU - Schwandt, Melanie L.
AU - Stein, Murray B.
AU - Subic-Wrana, Claudia
AU - Vogel, Mark
AU - Wingenfeld, Katja
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84958214032&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84958214032&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0146058
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0146058
M3 - Article
C2 - 26815788
AN - SCOPUS:84958214032
VL - 11
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 1
M1 - e0146058
ER -