Weems Carl F
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Palmer Building, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2025 Jun;28(2):491-506. doi: 10.1007/s10567-025-00528-4. Epub 2025 Jun 1.
The reliability of child and youth reports of traumatic events and adverse experiences (TRACEs) is a critically important but highly contentious issue. This paper presents a developmental perspective for understanding reporting, forgetting, and reimagining such experiences. This perspective addresses the targeted question of how to conceptualize correspondence in reports across time (i.e., the reliability of reports) and applies a developmental lens (both theory and data) to these data while also integrating relevant neuroscience data. This review provides 1) a critical summary of recent meta-analyses and data on consistency in reports of TRACEs and 2) a critical summary of systematic reviews of autobiographical memory in TRACEs and integrates 3) emerging developmental and neuroscience research and theory to support this perspective. The perspective emphasizes that there may be an evolution of the memory of a traumatic event and evolution in the perception of an event as traumatic over time. The perspective thereby implies that awareness of an event as traumatic is not limited to a strict dichotomy-either something traumatic happened or it did not-but can also be understood as a continuum, ranging from a strong memory or perception of the event as traumatic to weaker recollections and evolving interpretations over time.
儿童和青少年关于创伤性事件及不良经历（TRACEs）的报告的可靠性是一个极其重要但极具争议的问题。本文提出了一个发展视角，用于理解此类经历的报告、遗忘和重新构想。该视角解决了一个针对性问题，即如何将不同时间的报告中的一致性概念化（即报告的可靠性），并将发展视角（理论和数据）应用于这些数据，同时整合相关神经科学数据。本综述提供了：1）对近期关于TRACEs报告一致性的荟萃分析和数据的批判性总结；2）对TRACEs中自传体记忆的系统评价的批判性总结；3）新兴的发展和神经科学研究及理论，以支持这一视角。该视角强调，随着时间的推移，创伤性事件的记忆可能会演变，对某一事件作为创伤性事件的认知也可能会演变。因此，该视角意味着，对某一事件作为创伤性事件的认知并不局限于严格的二分法——要么发生了创伤性事件，要么没有——而是也可以理解为一个连续体，范围从对该事件作为创伤性事件的强烈记忆或认知到随着时间推移逐渐减弱的回忆和不断变化的解读。
