An extensive literature has consistently and robustly demonstrated that exposure to various forms of childhood trauma (e.g., childhood sexual abuse [CSA], childhood physical abuse [CPA]) is associated with risk for diverse psychiatric outcomes (Mullen et al. 1993; Fergusson et al. 1996a; Fergusson and Lynskey 1997; Kessler et al. 1997; Kendler et al. 2000; Molnar et al. 2001; Nelson et al. 2002, 2006; Green et al. 2010; McLaughlin et al. 2010; Scott et al. 2010). Many investigations have relied on binary measures to indicate the presence of a single form of trauma (e.g., Bevilacqua et al. 2012; Grabe et al. 2012a,b). Studies that assessed multiple trauma categories have generally either combined them into a single binary measure or included variables representing different trauma types in regression‐based analyses (e.g., Huang et al. 2012). To the extent that these variables are highly correlated, the latter option increases the risk of unstable results due to multicollinearity.
