Accuracy of Adult Recollections of Early Childhood Abuse

Abstract

This chapter describes a study examining the accuracy of adult recollections of childhood sexual and physical abuse or neglect using a sample of 1,196 individuals (mean age 29 yrs) with officially documented and substantiated cases of childhood victimization. The study reports on (1) the accuracy of self-report measures of childhood sexual and physical abuse by comparison to official reports; (2) the extent to which accuracy varies by the age of the child at the time of the abuse; (3) the predictive efficiency of the measures of abuse; and (4) construct validity. Self-report measures of early childhood sexual and physical abuse were administered in structured interview formats. Results indicate that there was good discriminant validity for both sexual abuse and physical abuse measures. The extent of reporting a history of childhood physical abuse varied dramatically by the criterion used. There appears to be a good discriminant validity for females for the retrospective self-report measures. For both types of child abuse, there was substantial underreporting of abuse among known victims. Official reports of physical abuse predict to official reports of violence, and self-reports of physical abuse predict to self-reports of violence. A commentary on the study is included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)