Accumulated childhood trauma and symptom complexity.
The relationship between accumulated exposure to different types of traumatic events (cumulative trauma) in childhood and the total number of different types of symptomatology reported (symptom complexity) in adulthood was examined in a sample of 2,453 female university students. There was a linear relationship between the number of trauma types experienced by participants before 18 and symptom complexity. This effect remained even when controlling for specific traumatic events, suggesting a generalized effect of cumulative trauma.
Briere
John
J
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. jbriere@usc.edu
Kaltman
Stacey
S
Green
Bonnie L
BL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data