Assessment of maternal childhood trauma: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire

Maternal childhood trauma was evaluated using the German version of the CTQ. ³³ This self-administered questionnaire comprises 28 items and assesses 5 distinct aspects of childhood trauma: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = never true; 5 = very often true), with higher scores indicating greater levels of abuse or neglect. ³³ Moreover, the subscales of the CTQ have different cut-offs (physical abuse = 8, emotional abuse = 10, sexual abuse = 8, physical neglect = 8, and emotional neglect = 15).^2,33 The CTQ has good validity and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha ⩾.80). The construct validity is supported by positive correlations with measures of anxiety/and depression and negative correlations with life satisfaction. The German version of the CTQ is reliable and valid for evaluating childhood trauma.

To analyze the severity of maternal childhood trauma stress in our sample, we dichotomized the total scores of the CTQ into 2 categories based on a median split (median = 31 points), as recommended and used in the literature.^{34 -36} The 2 categories were defined as lower (⩽31 total CTQ points) and higher maternal childhood trauma (>31 total CTQ points).