title: Polyvictimization: Latent profiles and mental health outcomes in a clinical sample of adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Exposure to multiple traumatic events (polyvictimization) is a reliable predictor of deleterious health outcomes and risk behaviors in adolescence. The current study extends the literature on the prevalence and consequences of adolescent trauma exposure by (a) empirically identifying and characterizing trauma exposure profiles in a large, ethnically diverse, multi-site, clinical sample of adolescents, and (b) evaluating relations among identified profiles with demographic characteristics and clinical correlates.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Core Data Set were used to identify and characterize victimization profiles using latent class analysis in a sample of 3,485 adolescents (ages 13-18, 63% female, 35.7% White, 23.2% Black/African American, 35.0% Hispanic/Latino). Multiple measures of psychological distress and risk behaviors were evaluated as covariates of trauma exposure classes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five trauma exposure classes, or profiles, were identified. Four classes-representing approximately half the sample-were characterized by polyvictimization. Polyvictimization classes were differentiated on number of trauma types, whether emotional abuse occurred, and whether emotional abuse occurred over single or multiple developmental epochs. Unique relations with demographic characteristics and mental health outcomes were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest polyvictimization is not a unidimensional phenomenon but a diverse set of trauma exposure experiences with unique correlates among youth. Further research on prevention of polyvictimization and mechanisms linking chronic trauma exposure, gender, and ethnicity to negative outcomes is warranted.
authors.affiliation: National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.
authors.forename: Zachary W
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moreland
authors.affiliation: National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.
authors.forename: Joseph R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, UCLA-Duke University, Durham, NC.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.
authors.forename: Rochelle F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.affiliation: National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.
authors.forename: Carla Kmett
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Danielson
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Self-Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, UCLA-Duke University, Durham, NC.
authors.forename: Ernestine C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Briggs
keywords: adolescence; complex trauma; maltreatment; mental health; polytraumatization; polyvictimization; trauma exposure