Emotional abuse and emotional neglect subscales of the CTQ: Associations with each other, other measures of psychological maltreatment, and demographic variables

The goal of this study was to explore the conceptual distinctness between the constructs of emotional abuse and emotional neglect. This was achieved through a comparison of the emotional abuse and the emotional neglect subscales of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). The two scales were compared with respect to each other, demographic variables, and other measures of psychological maltreatment. Two hundred and fifty three employees at a social service agency completed five scales of adult recall of childhood psychological maltreatment including the CTQ-EA subscale and the CTQ-EN subscale. Results revealed moderate associations between the two scales, strong associations with other measures of psychological maltreatment, and a mixed pattern of associations with demographic variables. Data suggest considerable but not complete overlap between these two subscales. Directions for future research are discussed.

► The CTQ-EA and CTQ-EN subscales of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were compared.
► Not all participants above the cut-off on one were above the cut-off on the other.
► The two subscales had somewhat overlapping but still unique pattern of associations with demographic variables.
► Both were correlated with other psychological maltreatment scales but the CTQ-EA was significantly more so than the CTQ-EN.