This paper describes a self-report measure, the Child Abuse and
Trauma Scale, which yields a quantitative index of the frequency and
extent of various types of negative experiences in childhood and
adolescence. Data on this measure are presented for two large samples
of college students and for a small clinical sample of subjects with a
diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder. The strong internal
consistency and test-retest reliability of the scale in the college
population is documented, and its validity is attested to by
demonstrating that it correlates significantly with outcomes such as
dissociation, depression, difficulties in interpersonal relationships,
and victimization, all of which have previously been associated with
childhood trauma or abuse. The extremely high scores of the Multiple
Personality subjects confer additional validity to the measure. The
authors suggest that the construct of psychological maltreatment
underlies the destructive elements of numerous forms of abuse and
neglect, and that the scale they have developed may provide a useful
index of this construct.