Accumulated childhood trauma and symptom complexity

• Published in: Journal of traumatic stress Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 223 - 226
• Main Authors: Briere, John, Kaltman, Stacey, Green, Bonnie L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germantown Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.04.2008; Wiley
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Age Factors; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Abuse - psychology; Child Abuse - statistics & numerical data; Child Abuse, Sexual - psychology; Child Abuse, Sexual - statistics & numerical data; Crime Victims - psychology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Health Surveys; Humans; Life Change Events; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Regression Analysis; Sex Factors; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Students - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Victimology; Violence - psychology; Violence - statistics & numerical data; Human; Victimology; Student; Complexity; Symptomatology; Child abuse; Young adult; Early traumatism; Psychopathology; Typology; Predictive factor; Woman; Antecedent
• ISSN: 0894-9867; 1573-6598
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.20317

The relationship between accumulated exposure to different types of traumatic events (cumulative trauma) in childhood and the total number of different types of symptomatology reported (symptom complexity) in adulthood was examined in a sample of 2,453 female university students. There was a linear relationship between the number of trauma types experienced by participants before 18 and symptom complexity. This effect remained even when controlling for specific traumatic events, suggesting a generalized effect of cumulative trauma.