Latent classes of childhood maltreatment in children and adolescents in foster care: associations with ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of sociodemographic variables

	N (%)	M (SD)
Nationality
Austria	105 (89.0)
Germany	3 (2.5)
Other	10 (8.5)
Education
Special needs school	55 (47.8)
Elementary school	1 (0.9)
Secondary school	34 (29.6)
Vocational school	23 (20.0)
Higher educational school	2 (1.7)
Contact with parents
No	5 (3.6)
Yes	132 (95.7)
Once a week or more often	110 (85.9)
Once a month or more often	16 (12.5)
Once in six months or more often	2 (1.6)
Age of first placement		10.92 (3.36)
Number of placements		1.17 (0.40)

N = number of participants, % = percent, M = mean, SD = standard deviation.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the CTQ subscales, PTSD/CPTSD and functional impairment sum score for the sample (N = 147)

	M	SD	Range
Maltreatment
Emotional abuse	8.99	4.93	1–25
Physical abuse	7.57	4.45	1–25
Sexual abuse	6.05	2.98	1–25
Emotional neglect	9.86	4.68	1–25
Physical neglect	8.07	3.07	1–25
Post-traumatic symptoms
PTSD	5.99	4.89	0–30
DSO	6.25	5.82	0–30
CPTSD	12.21	9.82	0–60
Functional impairment
PTSD	1.64	1.70	0–5
DSO	1.57	1.77	0–5

M = mean; SD = standard deviation; Range = possible range of the scale.

Table 3. Model fit indices of latent classes of childhood trauma subtypes (N = 147)

C	LL	AIC	BIC	SABIC	Entropy	BLRT p
2	−410.550	843.101	875.995	841.185	0.768	−458.066 <.001
3	−403.105	840.209	891.047	837.249	0.861	−410.550 <.001
4	−399.175	844.350	913.130	840.345	0.815	−403.105.375
5	−397.340	852.680	939.402	847.630	0.793	−399.175 0.667

C = number of classes; LL = log-likelihood; AIC = Akaike Information Criterion; BIC = Bayesian Information Criterion; SABIC = Sample-size adjusted Bayesian Information Criterion; BLRT = bootstrapped likelihood ratio test; p = p-value.

Bold values indicate the best fitting parameter for each model.

Figure 1. Graphic representation of the distinct classes

Table 4. Descriptive comparison of trauma classes according to age, PTSD, DSO and CPTSD symptom severity and functional impairment (FI) for the distinct symptom clusters PTSD and DSO

	Class 1 ‘limited maltreatment’	Class 2 ‘high neglect’	Class 3 ‘cumulative maltreatment’
	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Age	14.72 (0.36)	13.97 (0.39)	14.85 (0.38)
PTSD	5.25 (0.70)	4.25 (0.73)	8.65 (0.81)
DSO	3.60 (0.73)	2.46 (1.17)	11.68 (0.91)
CPTSD	9.40 (1.31)	7.57 (1.80)	19.69 (1.66)
FI PTSD	1.26 (0.23)	1.81 (0.67)	2.22 (0.33)
FI DSO	1.04 (0.23)	1.67 (0.76)	2.50 (0.40)

M = mean, SD = standard deviation.

Bolded values indicate the highest scores for each variable.

Table 5. χ² differences for PTSD, DSO, CPTSD and functional impairment (FI) for both clusters depending on trauma classes

	‘high neglect’ vs. ‘cumulative maltreatment’	‘high neglect’ vs. ‘limited maltreatment’	‘cumulative maltreatment’ vs. ‘limited maltreatment’
	χ^2	χ^2	χ^2
PTSD	14.08**	0.97	9.02*
DSO	43.50**	0.64	41.39**
CPTSD	20.18**	0.67	20.80**
FI PTSD	0.27	0.47	4.93*
FI DSO	0.78	0.54	8.62*

*Significant values p < .05; **significant values p < .001.

Table 6. Descriptive comparison of maltreatment classes according to mean and standard deviation for the CTQ subscales

	Class 1 ‘limited maltreatment’	Class 2 ‘high neglect’	Class 3 ‘cumulative maltreatment’
	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Emotional abuse	7.00 (0.29)	6.35 (0.24)	14.21 (0.91)
Physical abuse	4.94 (0.20)	6.64 (0.86)	12.41 (0.96)
Sexual abuse	5.13 (0.10)	4.87 (0.11)	8.55 (0.81)
Emotional neglect	7.01 (0.26)	11.46 (1.46)	14.63 (0.77)
Physical neglect	6.56 (0.21)	9.55 (0.49)	10.43 (0.69)

M = mean, SD = standard deviation.

Bolded values indicate the highest scores for each variable.

Data availability statement

The present data were assessed in the course of a research project commissioned and funded by the government of Lower Austria. Therefore, data cannot be shared due to legal reasons.