Profiles of lifetime interpersonal victimization in a nationally representative panel of trauma-exposed adults from the United Kingdom: Differences in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress

Exposure to traumatic events during childhood and adulthood has been associated with negative psychological outcomes; however, there is a dearth of research on revictimization, that is, experiences of victimization in both childhood and adulthood. The current study examined different patterns of lifetime victimization based on six types of childhood adversities, and physical and sexual assault, and assault with a weapon during adulthood, via latent class analysis (LCA) with gender as covariate. Further, the present study assessed differences across these latent classes in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder. An adult sample was recruited online through a research panel representative of the United Kingdom population (n = 1,051). The mean age of the sample was 47.18 years (SD = 15.00, range = 18-90 years; 68.4% females). The LCA identified five classes, namely, overall revictimization (8.3%), sexual revictimization (13.7%), physical revictimization (12.5%), childhood maltreatment (25.9 %), and limited victimization (39.7%). There were significantly more males in the physical victimization class, and significantly more females in the sexual revictimization and childhood maltreatment classes. The overall revictimization class had elevated scores in anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, followed by the childhood maltreatment class compared to the other classes. Further, the overall revictimization class had nearly a 17-fold increase in risk of PTSD, followed next by the childhood maltreatment class. Findings provide important implications for understanding patterns of lifetime victimization and how interventions may be targeted to address psychological outcomes.