A Latent Class Analysis of Childhood Maltreatment: Identifying Abuse Typologies

Abstract

Multiple forms of abuse may co-occur, resulting in specific abuse typologies. A stratified random probability survey was conducted in Denmark with 4,718 participants, aged 24, from the 1984 birth cohort. A total of 2,980 interviews were successfully conducted. Latent class analysis was implemented using 20 categorical abuse experience items across four domains of childhood maltreatment. Logistic regression was conducted to ascertain whether abuse typologies could be differentiated by child protection status and gender. Four distinct abuse typologies were revealed: a non-abused group, a psychologically maltreated group, a sexually abused group, and a group experiencing multiple abuse types. Child protection status and female gender were predictive of group membership in certain abused groups compared to a non-abused group.

Keywords:

• childhood maltreatment
• co-occurring abuse types
• emotional maltreatment
• latent class analysis
• neglect
• physical abuse
• sexual abuse

Acknowledgments

We thank the Danish National Research Foundation for generous research support.

Notes

^a Variables combined due to similarity in question wording and low-level endorsement. See Christoffersen et al. (in press) for individual items.

Note. AIC = Akaike information criterion; BIC = Bayesian information criterion; SSABIC = sample-size-adjusted BIC; LRT = Lo-Mendell-Rubin adjusted likelihood ratio test.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cherie Armour

Cherie Armour is a postdoc in psychotraumatology at the Danish National Center for Psychotraumatology at the University of Southern Denmark. Cherie has been involved in many studies related to trauma and its consequences and has particular interests in PTSD and statistical modeling.

Ask Elklit

Ask Elklit is professor in clinical psychology and head of the Danish National Center for Psychotraumatology. He has conducted a large number of studies on many different trauma populations and the treatment of PTSD.

Mogens N. Christoffersen

Mogens N. Christoffersen is a senior researcher at the Danish National Center for Social Research. He mainly publishes in the fields of parenting and child development, nontraditional families, cross-class families, father-custody families, parental leave, and day-care quality.