The Rating of Emotional Abuse in Childhood (REACH) Questionnaire: A new self-report measure assessing history of childhood emotional abuse

BACKGROUND: History of childhood emotional abuse (CEA) is prevalent among adults with affective disorders; therefore, a comprehensive measure of it is vital. The Rating of Emotional Abuse in Childhood Questionnaire (REACH) was developed to assess history of CEA in relation to threat, ignoring, humiliation/denigration, scapegoating, antipathy, and overcontrol/conditionality in a single measure. This paper investigated the psychometric properties of REACH in a community sample and proposes values for identifying individuals with clinically significant history of CEA. METHOD: A convenient sample of N = 483 adults (Female, 78.3 %) was recruited to complete questionnaires that included the REACH alongside measures of mental health, insecure attachment, emotion regulation, and childhood abuse. A subset of participants (n = 198) completed the REACH 7 days later. RESULTS: Factor analysis indicated a 2-factor model provided a good fit, with factors consistent with direct threat and covert categorisation of CEA. A total scale score of CEA was also recommended. The direct threat, covert, and total scales demonstrated strong psychometric properties with high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity, while our cutoff value for identifying significant history of CEA demonstrated good discriminant validity. LIMITATIONS: Convenient community sampling was used whereby most participants were female, thus the results may not generalise to other populations. CONCLUSIONS: The results support REACH as a valid measure and suggest history of CEA should be measured in relation to direct threat and covert CEA as they represent unique dimensions of CEA even though they often co-occur.