Background: Prospective and retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment often identify different individuals and are differentially associated with psychopathology. This study examines psycho-social factors that may explain discrepancies between these measures.Methods: Data were drawn from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 2,232 children born in 1994-1995 across England and Wales and followed to age 18 (93% retention). Childhood maltreatment was assessed through: (i) prospective assessments from caregivers, researchers, and clinicians at ages 5-12, and (ii) retrospective self-reports at age 18 using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (for maltreatment occurring up to age 12). For the analyses, we focused on participants identified as maltreated from either measure (n=290) and an a-priori selected array of potential explanatory variables assessed between ages 5-18. We conducted two sets of analyses: comparing individuals with only prospectively identified maltreatment to those identified by both prospective and retrospective measures, to understand why some participants did not retrospectively report or recall maltreatment; and comparing individuals with only retrospective self-reports to those identified by both prospective and retrospective measures, to understand why maltreatment had not been detected prospectively.Results: Participants in the prospective-only group reported greater social support over the life course and lower psychopathology at age 18 compared to those identified through both prospective and retrospective measures. Individuals in the retrospective-only group had higher socioeconomic status, higher self-reported adult involvement at age 12, and less exposure to domestic violence compared to those identified through both prospective and retrospective measures. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that perceptions of social support and better mental health may buffer retrospective recall of childhood maltreatment in those with prospective measures. Furthermore, more positive family functioning and socioeconomic factors may hamper prospective detection of childhood maltreatment in those who retrospectively report it.
Coleman et al. (Wed,) studied this question.