Self Report of Psychological Maltreatment

LONGSCAN, 1998

Description of Measure

Purpose

The measure is designed to capture a young adolescent’s (up to age 12) self report of lifetime history

of psychological maltreatment from any adult the respondent sees as a parent figure. Items assess a

young adolescent’s experience with a range of parental behaviors and aspects of the parent-child

relationship that may be considered psychologically neglectful or abusive. For each stem item

endorsed, three epochs are assessed, including before elementary school, since started elementary

school, and in the last year. An ordinal scale with three answer choices, including never, sometimes

and often, assesses the frequency of the experienced behavior within each epoch. A global item

assesses the child’s overall feelings of personal responsibility for all experienced psychological

maltreatment. Specific perpetrators and severity are not assessed.

Conceptual Organization

The authors sought to be inclusive of existing definitions of psychological maltreatment to permit the

most global assessment. However behaviors which could not reasonably be defined as maltreating in

an existing definition of psychological maltreatment and by the authors, were excluded for conceptual

clarity. Parent behaviors, rather than harm experienced, were assessed due in part to the validity and

reliability difficulties associated with asking for self report of harm due to psychological maltreatment

at age 12.

Five a priori, overlapping scales include assessments of psychological safety and security; acceptance

and self-esteem, age appropriate autonomy, exploiting and corrupting, and mental health, medical and

educational neglect.

Item Origin/Selection Process

Two classification systems were utilized in item selection. These include the definitions developed by

the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (Hart, Brassard & Karlson, 1996), and

those developed by Douglas Barnett, Jody Manly and Dante Cicchetti (1993).

Materials

The measure was administered using an A-CASI format. If necessary, paper and pencil forms maybe

interviewer or self administered, although the authors feel the A-CASI administration to be the most

valid.

Time Required

Administration times will vary based on the psychological maltreatment history of the respondent and

the branching nature of the instrument. Generally, it may be administered in 4 to 10 minutes.

Administration Method

A-CASI.

Training

Since the measure is designed as an A-CASI measure, training needs beyond familiarity with use of

the A-CASI system are minimal.

Scoring

Score Types

A sum score for psychological maltreatment (18 items, see below) may be derived for each epoch

(i.e., before elementary school; since started elementary school, in the last year, and ever). A

dichotomous indicator, for whether or not the youth endorsed one or more psychological maltreatment

items, may also be also derived for each epoch.

Psychological Maltreatment Items: Have any of your parents ever blamed you for their own problems? *

Have any of your parents ever called you names/teased you that made you felt really bad about yourself?

Have any of your parents ever made you feel that you couldn’t do anything right, no matter how hard u tried?

Have any of your parents ever punished you in an unusual way-like tying you up, or locking you in a closet?

Have any of your parents ever made you feel like they didn’t care whether you were safe or healthy?

Have any of your parents ever threatened to hurt you badly?

Have any of your parents ever threatened to kill you?

Have any of your parents ever threatened to abandon or leave you forever?

Have any of your parents ever threatened to kick you out of your home, or to have you taken away?

Have any of your parents ever tried to kill him/herself, or another person, in front of you?

Have any of your parents ever made you feel like they really didn’t love you?

Have any of your parents ever tried to stop you from having or making any friends outside the family? *

Have any of your parents ever seemed crazy, like heard voices or seen things that were there, that scare you?

Have any of your parents ever been so drunk or high that they behaved in ways that really scared you?

Have any of your parents ever threatened to hurt someone very important to you?

Have any of your parents ever threatened to hurt something important to you, like a pet/fav. thing of yours?

Have any of your parents ever blamed you for other people’s problems when they weren’t your fault? *

Have any of your parents ever humiliated you very badly by putting you down a lot in front of other people?

Note. * In order to be included, these items had to be coded as “occurred often” for at least one of the

follow-up items.

Score Interpretation

Higher scores indicate more psychological maltreatment experienced.

Norms and/or Comparative Data

None available at this time.

Psychometric Support

Reliability

None available at this time.

Validity

None available at this time.

LONGSCAN Use

Data Points

Age 12: All sites

Respondent

Youth.

Mnemonic and Version

Item level dataset: PSMA

Scored dataset: PSMS

Rationale

Numerous studies have linked psychological abuse to poor child and adolescent outcomes.

Additionally, LONGSCAN sought to assess abuse comprehensively, and included measurement of

physical, sexual and psychological abuse and neglect.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

Tables 1 provide descriptive statistics for the youth’s self report of psychological maltreatment scores

separately for each epoch (i.e., before elementary school, since started elementary school, in the last

year, and ever) by sample demographics. When looking at lifetime (i.e., up to age 12), 40% of youth

endorsed at least one of the psychological maltreatment items. Girls reported higher percentages of

psychological maltreatment across all for epochs as compared to boys.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for Self-Report of Psychological Maltreatment Scores by Demographics Psychological Maltreatment

Less than Elem. School Since Elem. School In the Last Year Ever Occurred

1 or more

items

endorsed

Overall

Score

1 or more

items

endorsed

Overall

Score

1 or more

items

endorsed

Overall

Score

1 or more

items

endorsed

Overall

Score

N % M (SD) % M (SD) % M (SD) % M (SD)

Overall 867 20.3 0.52(1.52) 30.8 0.84(1.78) 24.8 0.65(1.55) 40.2 1.22(2.18)

Gender

Male 429 9.8 0.48(1.50) 14.3 0.77(1.79) 11.2 0.60(1.58) 18.1 1.09(2.13)

Female 438 10.5 0.57(1.54) 16.5 0.90(1.77) 13.6 0.69(1.51) 22.1 1.35(2.22)

Study Site

EA 186 3.3 0.37(1.41) 4.7 0.56(1.53) 3.9 0.50(1.51) 7.7 0.94(1.86)

MW 114 2.4 0.38(1.14) 3.7 0.58(1.36) 3.0 0.45(1.21) 4.5 0.79(1.55)

SO 164 3.6 0.42(1.17) 6.6 1.04(1.90) 5.5 0.87(1.80) 8.1 1.41(2.27)

SW 226 7.5 0.85(2.02) 9.7 1.11(2.16) 7.8 0.82(1.69) 11.9 1.65(2.65)

NW 177 3.5 0.45(1.31) 6.1 0.74(1.52) 4.5 0.51(1.30) 8.1 1.07(1.98)

Source. Based on data received at the Coordinating Center through July ’06.

Correlations with Select Age 12 Outcomes

Table 2 provides correlations between the youth’s self report of psychological maltreatment abuse

scores (ever occurred) and select age 12 outcomes (i.e., T scores from the Child Behavior Checklist,

Youth Self Report Form, and Trauma Symptom Checklist). Significant correlations (ranging from .14

to .39) are seen between youth self-report psychological maltreatment scores and all three outcome

measures.

Table 2. Correlations between Self-Report Psychological Maltreatment Scores (ever occurred)

and Select Age 12 Outcomes

N

Psychological Abuse

Score (ever occurred)

Child Behavior Checklist T Scores

Internalizing Problems 845 .14***

Externalizing Problems 845 .16***

Total Problems 845 .17***

Youth Self Report T Scores

Internalizing Problems 853 .32***

Externalizing Problems 853 .33***

Total Problems 853 .36***

Trauma Symptom Checklist T Scores

Anger 837 .39***

Anxiety 837 .28***

Depression 837 .38***

PTSD 837 .31***

Dissociation 837 .34***

Source. Based on data received at the Coordinating Center through July ’06.

* < .05, ** < .01, *** < .001

Publisher Information

The measure is free and available for use after the LONGSCAN Coordinating Center’s receipt of a

signed LONGSCAN Shared Measures Agreement. Further information may be found at

http://www.iprc.unc.edu/longscan/.

References and Bibliography

Barnett, D., Manly, J., & Cicchetti, D. (1993). Defining child maltreatment: The interface between

policy and research, in Cicchetti D. & Toth, S. L., Advances in applied developmental psychology:

Child abuse, child development and social policy. Ablex Publishing Corp, Norwood, NJ.

Hart, S. N., Brassard, M., & Karlson (1996). Psychological maltreatment, in Briere, J., Berliner, L.,

Bulkley, J. A., Jenny, C., & Reid, T., The APSAC handbook on child maltreatment. Sage

Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.