title: Development of a Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS): a relational-socioecological framework for surveying attachment security and childhood trauma history.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Current psychometric measures of childhood trauma history generally fail to assess the relational-socioecological context within which childhood maltreatment occurs, including the relationship of abusers to abused persons, the emotional availability of caregivers, and the respondent's own thoughts, feelings, and actions in response to maltreatment.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate a computerized approach to measuring the relational-socioecological context within which childhood maltreatment occurs.
  
  
  METHODS
  The psychometric properties of a Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS) were evaluated as a retrospective survey of childhood maltreatment history designed to be appropriate for completion by adults. Participants were undergraduates (n=222), an internet sample (n=123), and psychiatric outpatients (n=30).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The internal reliability, convergent, and concurrent validity of the CARTS were supported across samples. Paired differences in means and correlations between rated item-descriptiveness to self, mothers, and fathers also accorded with findings of prior attachment and maltreatment research, illustrating the utility of assessing the occurrence and effects of maltreatment within a relational-socioecological framework.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results preliminarily support a new survey methodology for assessing childhood maltreatment within a relational-socioecological framework. Further psychometric evaluation of the CARTS is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada ; Department of Psychiatry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada ; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Frewen
authors.forename: Barrie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halliday
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boylan
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reiss
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schore
authors.forename: Ruth A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Lanius
keywords: Child abuse and neglect; attachment; child maltreatment; family relationships; scale development; trauma