The Reliability of Traumatic and Adverse Experiences

To the Editor Danese and Widom reported a study of children aged 6 years who had a court-substantiated case of abuse and demographically matched children aged 6 years who did not. When the children were aged 26 years, their subjective report of exposure to abuse was assessed. The study includes data on the long-term reliability between the objective reports and the subjective reports (at age 26 years) in eTable 1 in Supplement 1 (overall, Cohen k  = 0.25; physical abuse, Cohen k = 0.09; sexual abuse, Cohen k = 0.17; and neglect, Cohen k = 0.32). The Cohen k results suggest low reliability over the course of 20 years. The participant numbers for these reliability analyses are not reported. Forgetting or reimagining vs nondiscl osure has important assessment, intervention, and prevention implications.
Source: JAMA Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research