Citation

Edwards VJ, Freyd JJ, Dube SR, Anda RF, Felitti VJ. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2012; 21(2): 133-148.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10926771.2012.648100

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Betrayal trauma theory (Freyd, 1996) postulates childhood abuse perpetrated by a caregiver or someone close to the victim results in worse mental health than abuse perpetrated by a noncaregiver. Using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) data, we tested whether adults with high betrayal (HB) abuse would report poorer functional and mental health than low betrayal (LB) abuse victims. Among those participants reporting childhood sexual abuse, 32% experienced HB abuse. HB victims had a higher average ACE score than LB victims (2.72 vs. 1.87, p <.001), had significantly lower functional health scores on 4 of the 7 SF-36 Health Survey scales (all p <.04), and reported higher depression, anxiety, suicidality, panic, and anger (all p <.05).

KEYWORDS: Juvenile justice; Juvenile delinquency