title: Agreement between hospitalized adolescents' self-reports of maltreatment and witnessed home violence and clinician reports and medical records.
abstract: Seventy-one consecutive psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents (34 males and 37 females) were systematically asked about their experiences of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and witnessing home violence using a reliable 46-item self-report measure of maltreatment, the Traumatic Events Questionnaire-Adolescent Version (TEQ-A). Subjects' responses were compared with a "best-estimate" source consisting of data from child protective service and police reports, medical records, and clinician interviews. Rates of agreement varied from 88% (kappa value [kappa] = .75) for sexual abuse, to 83% (kappa = .65) for physical abuse, to 75% (kappa = .49) for witnessing home violence. Disclosures of maltreatment were not significantly influenced by the gender, age, educational level, or ethnicity of the adolescent. Disclosures were highest for sexual abuse (86%) and lowest for witnessing home violence (68%). The results show that psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents' self-reports of maltreatment experiences generally concur very well with best-estimate sources.
authors.affiliation: Communication Disorders Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Winegar
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Lipschitz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014342:Truth Disclosure