The importance of retrospective findings in child maltreatment research.

In two recent reports, Widom and colleagues (Raphael, Widom, & Lange, 2001; Widom, Weiler, & Cottler, 1999) found that prospective findings differed from retrospective findings in the same sample. In both studies, the prospective findings showed no relationship between maltreatment and two outcomes--chronic pain or substance abuse--but did find a relationship between maltreatment and these outcome variables when subjects reported retrospectively. The subjects identified prospectively all had histories of maltreatment documented during childhood. They were compared to a matched non-abused control group. In contrast, the retrospective findings were based on questionnaire data when the subjects were adults, 20 years later. The questionnaire asked subjects in both the maltreated and control groups if they had experienced any of the abusive or neglectful acts before age 12. When subjects identified their abuse status retrospectively, there were strong relationships between maltreatment and pain (Raphael et al., 2001), and maltreatment and substance abuse (Widom et al., 1999).