The Comprehensive Childhood Maltreatment Inventory: early development and reliability analyses

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Childhood maltreatment is a significant public health concern with long-term consequences.
• Accurate assessment of retrospective childhood maltreatment memories in adults is crucial for research and clinical practice.
• Existing measures may not capture the full spectrum of abusive caregiver behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a comprehensive and reliable measure of childhood maltreatment.
• To assess retrospective memories of abusive caregiver behaviors across a broad range.
• To evaluate the measure's psychometric properties, including reliability and internal consistency.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 31-item questionnaire assessing age of onset, frequency, perpetrator relationship, and perceived experience of maltreatment.
• Inclusion of items relevant to four distinct categories of childhood maltreatment.
• Preliminary data collection from 95 college students.

Main Results:

• The developed measure demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability.
• Two of the four subscales exhibited adequate internal consistency.
• Preliminary findings support the measure's reliability for evaluating retrospective childhood maltreatment.

Conclusions:

• Discussion of factors contributing to lower internal consistency in specific subscales (Physical Maltreatment, Physical Neglect).
• Exploration of the relative importance of test-retest reliability versus internal consistency for this type of retrospective measure.
• Implications for the assessment of childhood maltreatment in adult populations.