title: The variance shared across forms of childhood trauma is strongly associated with liability for psychiatric and substance use disorders.
abstract: Forms of childhood trauma tend to co-occur and are associated with increased risk for psychiatric and substance use disorders. Commonly used binary measures of trauma exposure have substantial limitations.
  
  
  
  We performed multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), separately by sex, using data from the Childhood Trauma (CT) Study's sample of twins and siblings (N = 2594) to derive three first-order factors (childhood physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse, and parental partner abuse) and, as hypothesized, one higher order, childhood trauma factor (CTF) representing a measure of their common variance.
  
  
  
  CFA produced a good-fitting model in the CT Study; we replicated the model in the Comorbidity and Trauma (CAT) Study's sample (N = 1981) of opioid-dependent cases and controls. In both samples, first-order factors are moderately correlated (indicating they measure largely unique, but related constructs) and their loadings on the CTF suggest it provides a reasonable measure of their common variance. We examined the association of CTF score with risk for psychiatric and substance use disorders in these samples and the OZ-ALC GWAS sample (N = 1538) in which CT Study factor loadings were applied. We found that CTF scores are strongly associated with liability for psychiatric and substance use disorders in all three samples; estimates of risk are extremely consistent across samples.
  
  
  
  The CTF is a continuous, robust measure that captures the common variance across forms of childhood trauma and provides a means to estimate shared liability while avoiding multicollinearity.
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kristjansson
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Vivia V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: McCutcheon
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Arpana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience King's College London UK.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Lynskey
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Research University of Western Sydney Sydney Australia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Conroy
authors.affiliation: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Brisbane Australia.
authors.forename: Dixie J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Statham
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Pamela A F
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Madden
authors.affiliation: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Brisbane Australia.
authors.forename: Anjali K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Henders
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Alexandre A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Todorov
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Kathleen K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Bucholz
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Center University of New South Wales Sydney Australia.
authors.forename: Louisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Degenhardt
authors.affiliation: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Brisbane Australia.
authors.forename: Nicholas G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.affiliation: Alcoholism Research Center Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Elliot C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D035781:Siblings; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics
keywords: Childhood trauma; confirmatory factor analysis; substance use disorders
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