Measures matter: assessing childhood maltreatment and emotion dysregulation in a transdiagnostic sample

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a major risk factor for different mental disorders and transdiagnostic mechanisms, including emotion dysregulation. Progress in the field has been constrained by substantial variability in the measurement of CM across studies.Objective: We aimed to examine the associations among three common retrospective measures of CM and their relationship with emotion dysregulation in a transdiagnostic adult sample, with a focus on exploring the significance of sensitive developmental periods.Method: In our cross-sectional study, we collected data from N = 462 participants with and without different mental disorders. We assessed facets of CM using two questionnaires and one in-person interview, specifically the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q), and the brief German interview version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scale (MACE), the KERF-40+. We measured emotion dysregulation in a subsample of n = 244 participants using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). We analysed data applying correlational analyses and machine-learning-based conditional random forest regression.Results: In our transdiagnostic sample, global scores (including sum, multiplicity, and duration scores) and subscale scores of the CTQ-SF, CECA.Q, and KERF-40+ were highly intercorrelated. Both global scores of the CTQ-SF and KERF-40+, and emotional CM scores of the CTQ-SF, CECA.Q, and KERF-40+ showed significant associations with the DERS total score. Regarding sensitive developmental periods, exposure to parental emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and emotional and physical abuse by peers – particularly during the ages 12–17 – was significantly associated with the DERS total score.Conclusions: Despite substantial differences in the facets of CM assessed, the CTQ-SF, CECA.Q, and KERF-40+ demonstrate high convergent validity. While CTQ-SF and CECA.Q allow for a more efficient assessment of CM experiences, the KERF-40+ offers added value for developmentally sensitive analyses of adult emotion dysregulation.