Childhood Maltreatment, Familial Violence, and Retraumatization

ABSTRACT This preliminary study attempts (1) to examine differences in posttraumatic symptomatology in predominately minority, sheltered battered women (n= 55) as a function of childhood trauma histories; and (2) to disentangle the impact of two often confounded forms of childhood trauma: exposure to family violence and direct childhood maltreatment. Controlling for current domestic violence (DV), hierarchical regression analyses showed childhood emotional abuse mediated the adverse effects of childhood exposure to family violence on PTSD symptomatology (i.e., hyperarousal, intrusion). Avoidant symptoms were most strongly predicted by current domestic violence, with psychological abuse adding significantly to the variance explained above and beyond physical abuse.