title: Assessing the family dynamics of childhood maltreatment history with the Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Existing survey measures of childhood trauma history generally fail to take into account the relational-socioecological environment in which childhood maltreatment occurs. Variables such as the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, the emotional availability of caregivers, witnessing the abuse of others, and the respondent's own thoughts, feelings, and actions in response to maltreatment are rarely assessed by current measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  To address these concerns, the current study further investigated the family dynamics of childhood maltreatment using the Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS) in 1,782 persons assessed online.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Paired differences in means between item-rated descriptiveness of self, mothers, and fathers suggested that respondents' relationship with their biological fathers was less positive and secure than their relationship with their biological mothers, and that biological fathers were more often the perpetrator of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse than biological mothers. However, results further suggested that ratings between self, mothers, and fathers were positively correlated such that, for example, reports of a mother's or a respondent's own abusive behavior were more likely in the presence of reports of a father's abusive behavior. In addition, analyses evaluating witnessing violence demonstrated that fathers were rated as more often violent toward mothers than the reverse, although intimate partner violence was also frequently bidirectional. Analyses of sibling ratings further demonstrated that older brothers were either as or more frequently abusive when compared with parents. Finally, results suggested that childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse were much more often perpetrated by family members than extra-familial and non-family members.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In so far as these findings are consistent with the prior childhood trauma and attachment literature, the current study further supports the utility of the CARTS as a means of assessing the family dynamics of childhood attachment and maltreatment within a relational-socioecological framework.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Western University Canada, London, Ontario, Canada; pfrewen@uwo.ca.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Frewen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The New School for Social Research, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: DePierro
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The New School for Social Research, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: D'Andrea
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schore
keywords: Childhood abuse and neglect; attachment; childhood maltreatment; childhood trauma; posttraumatic stress disorder