Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood victimization, Part 2: Childhood sexual abuse.

TLDR

The study situates its findings within broader research on how accurately adults recall childhood experiences. The authors followed a prospective cohort of 1,575 children who had been physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected about 20 years earlier, and later interviewed 1,196 of them in young adulthood using two self‑report instruments—including the Conflict Tactics Scale—to assess histories of childhood physical abuse. Self‑report measures demonstrated good discriminant validity and predictive efficiency for identifying childhood physical abuse, even though physically abused respondents underreported, and construct‑validity tests revealed shared method variance with self‑reported violence and that official abuse reports predicted arrests for violence.

Abstract

Using data from a study with prospective-cohorts design in which children who were physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected about 20 years ago were followed up along with a matched control group, accuracy of adult recollections of childhood physical abuse was assessed. Two hour in-person interviews were conducted in young adulthood with 1,196 of the original 1,575 participants. Two measures ( including the Conflict Tactics Scale ) were used to assess histories of childlhood physical abuse. Results indicate good discriminant validity and predictive efficiency ofthe self-report measures, despite substantial underreporting by physically abused respondents. Tests of construct validity reveal shared method variance, with self-report measures predicting self-reported violence and official reports of physical abuse predicting arrests for violence. Findings are discussed in the context of other research on the accuracy of adult recollections of childhood experiences.