Measures matter: assessing childhood maltreatment and emotion dysregulation in a transdiagnostic sample.

Résumé

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a major risk factor for different mental disorders and transdiagnostic mechanisms, including emotion dysregulation. Progress in the field has been constrained by substantial variability in the measurement of CM across studies. We aimed to examine the associations among three common retrospective measures of CM and their relationship with emotion dysregulation in a transdiagnostic adult sample, with a focus on exploring the significance of sensitive developmental periods. In our cross-sectional study, we collected data from  = 462 participants with and without different mental disorders. We assessed facets of CM using two questionnaires and one in-person interview, specifically the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q), and the brief German interview version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scale (MACE), the KERF-40+. We measured emotion dysregulation in a subsample of  = 244 participants using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). We analysed data applying correlational analyses and machine-learning-based conditional random forest regression. In our transdiagnostic sample, global scores (including sum, multiplicity, and duration scores) and subscale scores of the CTQ-SF, CECA.Q, and KERF-40+ were highly intercorrelated. Both global scores of the CTQ-SF and KERF-40+, and emotional CM scores of the CTQ-SF, CECA.Q, and KERF-40+ showed significant associations with the DERS total score. Regarding sensitive developmental periods, exposure to parental emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and emotional and physical abuse by peers - particularly during the ages 12-17 - was significantly associated with the DERS total score. Despite substantial differences in the facets of CM assessed, the CTQ-SF, CECA.Q, and KERF-40+ demonstrate high convergent validity. While CTQ-SF and CECA.Q allow for a more efficient assessment of CM experiences, the KERF-40+ offers added value for developmentally sensitive analyses of adult emotion dysregulation.