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Lifetime Interpersonal Victimization Profiles and Mental Health Problems in a Nationally Representative Panel of Trauma‐Exposed Adults From the United Kingdom
Author(s) -
Charak Ruby,
Vang Maria Louison,
Shevlin Mark,
BenEzra Menachem,
Karatzias Thanos,
Hyland Philip
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.22527
Subject(s) - latent class model , anxiety , psychiatry , clinical psychology , psychology , poison control , population , injury prevention , depression (economics) , psychological intervention , suicide prevention , medicine , medical emergency , statistics , mathematics , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Traumatic event exposure has been associated with negative psychological outcomes. There is, however, a dearth of research on revictimization. The current study examined patterns of lifetime interpersonal victimization based on six types of childhood maltreatment, physical and sexual assault, and assault with a weapon during adulthood via latent class analysis (LCA), with gender as covariate. Using a three‐step approach, we assessed differences across the latent classes in symptoms and diagnosis of depression, anxiety, and DSM‐5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A trauma‐exposed adult sample representative of the United Kingdom population ( N = 1,051) was recruited online through a research panel. The mean participant age 47.18 years ( SD = 15.00, range: 18–90 years; 68.4% female). The LCA identified five classes: lifetime polyvictimization (8.3%; 69.5% female), sexual revictimization (13.7%; 96.5% female), physical revictimization (12.5%; 1.5% male), childhood trauma (25.9%; 85.6% female), and limited victimization (39.7%; 40.3% female). Compared to the other classes, the polyvictimization class, followed by the childhood trauma class, demonstrated the highest scores on anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. The polyvictimization class had nearly a nine‐ to 33‐fold increase in risk of depression, OR = 9.48, 95% CI [3.34, 26.87]; anxiety, OR = 12.10, 95% CI [5.36, 27.36]; and PTSD diagnoses, OR = 33.63, 95% CI [16.35, 69.43], compared to the limited victimization class. The findings facilitate the identification of individuals at risk for revictimization and indicate that evidence‐based clinical interventions should be targeted toward those with exposure to revictimization and childhood trauma exposure to alleviate mental health challenges.