Childhood maltreatment, posttraumatic stress symptomatology, and adolescent dating violence: Considering the value of adolescent perceptions of abuseand a trauma mediational model

The present study, utilizing both a child protective services and high scho ol sample of midadolescents, examined the issue of self-report of maltreatm ent as it relates to issues of external validity (i.e., concordance with so cial worker ratings), reliability (i.e., overlap with an alternate child ma ltreatment self-report inventory; association of a self-labeling item as "a bused" with their subscale item counterparts), and construct validity (i.e. , the association of maltreatment with posttraumatic stress symptomatology and dating violence). Relevant theoretical work in attachment, trauma, and relationship violence points to a mediational model, whereby the relationsh ip between childhood maltreatment and adolescent dating violence would be e xpected to be accounted for by posttraumatic stress symptomatology. In the high school sample, 1329 adolescents and, in the CPS sample, 224 youth on t he active caseloads completed comparable questionnaires in the three domain s of interest. For females only, results supported a mediational model in t he prediction of dating violence in both samples. For males, child maltreat ment and trauma symptomatology added unique contributions to predicting dat ing violence, with no consistent pattern emerging across samples. When cons idering the issue of self-labeling as abused, CPS females who self-labeled had higher posttraumatic stress symptomatology and dating violence victimiz ation scores than did their nonlabeling, maltreated counterparts for emotio nal maltreatment. These results point to the need for ongoing work in under standing the process of disclosure and how maltreatment experiences are con sciously conceptualized.