Exploring the relationship between facets of childhood trauma and violent injury risk during adulthood: A dominance analysis study

Abstract

Background

Research on childhood maltreatment indicates that it is positively linked with exposure to violence during childhood and later in life. Various forms of maltreatment during childhood (e.g., physical abuse, emotional neglect) are specifically linked to a greater likelihood of violent victimization and perpetration during adulthood. Similarly, adults who report experiences of childhood maltreatment are at an elevated risk of sustaining violent injuries requiring hospitalization. Despite the links between maltreatment and the risk of violence exposure, the relative importance of the forms of maltreatment as predictors remains unclear.

Objective

This study aimed to identify the most important form of child maltreatment in predicting the risk of violent injuries in adulthood.

Participants and setting

Participants (N = 367) were patients in treatment at a level-1 trauma center following a violent injury.

Methods

We compared the five forms of childhood maltreatment as predictors of the number of violent injuries sustained over the life course using a dominance analysis approach.

Results

Our initial regression analyses revealed that a negative binomial model (Nagelkerke's R² = 0.17) fit our data best due to the zero-inflated nature of our data. Dominance analyses revealed that emotional abuse (pooled Nagelkerke's R² = 0.07) completely dominated all other forms of maltreatment.

Conclusions

Emotional abuse childhood is the most important predictor of violent injury risk during adulthood after accounting for the multicollinearity shared among indicators of childhood maltreatment.