Lee Jungup, Munisamy Yogeswari, Ai Tan, Yoon Sungwon, Kim Jinyung, Pon Alicia
Department of Social Work, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Social Service Research Centre, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
PLoS One. 2025 Apr 11;20(4):e0320851. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0320851. eCollection 2025.
This study used Latent Class Analysis to identify typologies of childhood maltreatment (CM) and the associations of CM with five internalizing symptoms. A sample of 1,042 university students in Singapore answered online self-report questionnaires, inclusive of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, a modified version of the 14-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale derived from the CES-D, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (version 6.0), and Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale. These measures respectively assessed CM and current internalizing symptoms, namely, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, PTSD, eating disorder, and suicidal ideation. The most common type of CM was childhood emotional neglect (74.6%), followed by childhood emotional abuse (61%). Men were more likely to experience childhood physical abuse compared to women; contrarily, women were two times more likely to report childhood emotional abuse compared to men. The findings of Latent Class Analysis revealed four distinct latent classes of CM: Low CM, high/multiple CM, moderate to high abuse/victimization, and moderate to high neglect. Students in the latter three CM classes were more likely than those in the Low CM class to report the internalizing symptoms. These findings indicate the importance of protecting children from CM and cushioning the adverse effects of CM on victims by providing timely intervention, both of which would be best achieved with the education of professionals, caregivers and the public alike, and improvements to current programs and practices.
本研究采用潜在类别分析来识别儿童期虐待（CM）的类型以及CM与五种内化症状之间的关联。新加坡的1042名大学生样本回答了在线自我报告问卷，包括儿童创伤问卷、从流行病学研究中心抑郁量表衍生而来的14项改良版、贝克焦虑量表、创伤后应激障碍检查表、饮食失调检查问卷（第6.0版）以及自杀意念属性量表。这些测量工具分别评估了CM和当前的内化症状，即抑郁症状、焦虑症状、创伤后应激障碍、饮食失调和自杀意念。最常见的CM类型是儿童期情感忽视（74.6%），其次是儿童期情感虐待（61%）。与女性相比，男性更有可能经历儿童期身体虐待；相反，与男性相比，女性报告儿童期情感虐待的可能性是男性的两倍。潜在类别分析的结果揭示了CM的四个不同潜在类别：低CM、高/多重CM、中度至高虐待/受害以及中度至高忽视。后三个CM类别的学生比低CM类别的学生更有可能报告内化症状。这些发现表明保护儿童免受CM侵害以及通过提供及时干预来减轻CM对受害者的不利影响的重要性，而这两者通过对专业人员、照顾者和公众进行教育以及改进当前的项目和做法来实现最为理想。
