An Examination of Variations of Verbal Memory Performance in a Population of Children who have been Maltreated

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This research examined the consequences of maltreatment on children's verbal memory, as measured by the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-C). The data were collected through an NIMH funded study at Duke University titled Life Events & Childhood Brain Development (funded under the title PTSD & Childhood Sexual Abuse: Psychobiology, Principal Investigator: Michael De Bellis). The analytic sample for this study consisted of 96 children who served as controls, and 91 children who had been maltreated. This study addressed the following research questions: 1) Do children who have been maltreated differ significantly from a control group on an overall measure of verbal memory performance? 2) Do children who have been maltreated differ significantly from a control group across five verbal memory factors? 3) Within the group of children who have been maltreated, are the total numbers of PTSD symptoms manifested predictive of variation in performance across the five verbal memory factors? 4) Within the group of children who have been maltreated, is the diagnostic status of PTSD predictive of variation in performance across the five verbal memory factors? Structural equation modeling was used to analyze these questions. Covariates such as attention, intelligence, race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and type of maltreatment were included as predictors in the models.

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