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Abstract
Introduction: The experience of traumatic situations is related to psychological symptoms and disorders in adulthood [Citation1]. The traumatic event with the greatest impact on children is the experience of sexual abuse [Citation2]. This study aims to analyze the impact of childhood traumatic events on adults.
Materials and methods: The sample is composed by 318 Portuguese adults. The majority of participants are female (n = 266, 83.6%), with ages between 18 and 89 years old (M = 29.69; DP = 13.23), most of them are single (n = 224, 70.4%) and high school graduated (n = 188, 59.1%). The participants responded online to the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF) [Citation3], Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5) [Citation4] and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) [Citation5]. The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
Results: The correlation between the childhood trauma and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, showed some statistical significant results. The emotional abuse had significant and strong correlations with the symptoms of PTSD, for the total score (r = .42, p< .001) and the subscale reexperience (r = .33, p< .001), avoidance (r = .22, p< .001), hyperarousal (r = .44, p < .001), and duration (r = .38= p<.001). Concerning the sexual abuse, there were significant correlations with the total score (r = .13, p = .018), and the subscales avoidance (r = .20, p< .001) and hyperarousal (r = .15, p =.007). On physical abuse we verified significant correlations for the total score (r = .29, p< .001) and the subscales reexperience (r = .22, p< .001), avoidance (r = .11, p = .042), hyperarousal (r = .32, p < .001), duration (r = .28, p< .001). On emotional negligence, there are a significant correlation for the total score (r = −.30, p < .001) and subscales, reexperience (r = −.21, p < .001), avoidance (r = −.14, p = .015), hyperarousal (r = −.33, p< .001), duration (r = .30, p< .001). Comparing the traumatic events and symptomology between genders, the one-way ANOVA results showed that there were statistically significant differences between genders regarding sexual abuse [F (182.62) = −2.29, p = .002], with women reporting greater exposure to sexual violence (M = 5.56, SD = 1.78). Regarding the symptomatology, there were statistically significant differences between genders, and women reported greater symptomatology than men.
Discussion and conclusions: The childhood victimization can have negative consequences in the life of an adult, and it is important to implement an early intervention that makes it possible to prevent the beginning of psychopathological symptoms.