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Child abuse rating system for archival information in severe mental illness

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Assessing and addressing child abuse histories are one of the grand challenges in psychiatric rehabilitation. Archival information, e.g., comprehensive psychosocial evaluations, objective testing, court documents, and medical chart information can provide useful and objective historical accounts. It is essential to develop a reliable and valid child abuse rating system for archival information.

Purpose and methods

This study aimed to examine the reliability and predictive validity of a highly structured and specific child abuse rating system used to code archival information for 150 psychiatric inpatients with severe mental illness (SMI).

Results

The child abuse rating system produced reliable ratings across raters and subtypes of child abuse were highly inter-related. More than half (56.5%) of the sample with SMI was identified to have one or more types of child abuse history; specifically, child sexual abuse (CSA, 36%), child physical abuse (CPA, 27.3%), emotional maltreatment (EM, 36%), failure to provide (FTP, 10.7%), and lack of supervision (LOS, 32%). Female participants (50%) with SMI had higher rates of CSA than male participants (20.8%). Subtypes of child abuse history were related to poorer premorbid functioning, but the relationships varied across different types of child abuse. In addition, CSA and EM were related to greater suspiciousness/hostility.

Conclusion

The child abuse rating system for archival data fills an important gap in existing methodology and, in conjunction with a self-report measure, is expected to improve the assessment and understanding of the prevalence of child abuse among adults with SMI. Potential limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Interested parties can contact the first author for a copy of the data collection/coding guideline for research assistants.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ashley Wynne, Melissa Tarasenko, Elizabeth Cook, Charlie Davidson, and the members of the Serious Mental Illness Research Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for their assistance in data collection for this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Kee-Hong Choi

  2. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA

    Kee-Hong Choi, L. Felice Reddy & Will Spaulding

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  1. Kee-Hong Choi
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  2. L. Felice Reddy
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  3. Will Spaulding
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Correspondence to Kee-Hong Choi.

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Choi, KH., Reddy, L.F. & Spaulding, W. Child abuse rating system for archival information in severe mental illness. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 47, 1271–1279 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0435-z

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