Characteristics of Childhood Experiences in Women with Remitted Major Depression

Research into the relationships between psychiatric disorders and childhood adversities (e.g. neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse) has been limited by the use of self-report assessments, which may provide incomplete or biased information. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA; Bifulco, Brown, & Harris, 1994) is a rigorous semi-structured interview, but is limited in utility because of its length. The goal of this project was to more efficiently classify detailed reports of childhood events gathered from the CECA. An exploratory factor analysis was performed using a sample of women (N=142) with remitted, recurrent major depression. One definable factor was found, Noxious Environment, which accounted for a large proportion of the variance in the CECA. This suggests that the development of a briefer CECA rating method is warranted. Additional exploratory analyses indicated that childhood experiences might be significantly influenced by the composition of the household and any caregiver transitions that occur. These findings suggest the CECA can be condensed, making it less time-consuming and burdensome to score and thus more widely usable in research settings. Additionally, these findings reinforce the advantages of using the CECA over self-report measures of adverse experiences by allowing for changes in ratings over time and accounting for changes in household composition