• R K Winegar and D S Lipschitz.
• Communication Disorders Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
• Compr Psychiatry. 1999 Sep 1;40(5):347-52.

AbstractSeventy-one consecutive psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents (34 males and 37 females) were systematically asked about their experiences of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and witnessing home violence using a reliable 46-item self-report measure of maltreatment, the Traumatic Events Questionnaire-Adolescent Version (TEQ-A). Subjects' responses were compared with a "best-estimate" source consisting of data from child protective service and police reports, medical records, and clinician interviews. Rates of agreement varied from 88% (kappa value [kappa] = .75) for sexual abuse, to 83% (kappa = .65) for physical abuse, to 75% (kappa = .49) for witnessing home violence. Disclosures of maltreatment were not significantly influenced by the gender, age, educational level, or ethnicity of the adolescent. Disclosures were highest for sexual abuse (86%) and lowest for witnessing home violence (68%). The results show that psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents' self-reports of maltreatment experiences generally concur very well with best-estimate sources.

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