Epidemiology of multiple childhood traumatic events: child abuse, parental psychopathology, and other family-level stressors.

BACKGROUND

Multiple family-level childhood stressors are common and are correlated. It is unknown if clusters of commonly co-occurring stressors are identifiable. The study was designed to explore family-level stressor clustering in the general population, to estimate the prevalence of exposure classes, and to examine the correlation of sociodemographic characteristics with class prevalence.

METHOD: Data were collected from an epidemiological sample and analyzed using latent class regression.

RESULTS

A six-class solution was identified. Classes were characterized by low risk (prevalence=23%), universal high risk (7 %), family conflict (11 %), household substance problems (22 %), non-nuclear family structure (24 %), parent's mental illness (13 %).

CONCLUSIONS

Class prevalence varied with race and welfare status, not gender. Interventions for childhood stressors are person-focused; the analytic approach may uniquely inform resource allocation.