Childhood maltreatment, defined as neglect, physical or sexual abuse, is a substantial public health problem. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (2009), there were approximately 3.2 million child abuse referrals and 794 000 confirmed victims of childhood maltreatment in the USA in 2007. Childhood maltreatment is associated with a variety of negative outcomes (National Research Council, 1993), including early alcohol use and problem drinking (Luster & Small, 1997; Bensley et al. 1999; Simantov et al. 2000; Moran et al. 2004; Hussey et al. 2006; Rothman et al. 2008; Shin et al. 2009), and alcoholism in adolescence (Fergusson et al. 1996a; Clark et al. 1997; Kilpatrick et al. 2000; Dube et al. 2002) and adulthood (Kendler et al. 2000; Galaif et al. 2001; Molnar et al. 2001). Although the majority of research suggests that childhood maltreatment is associated with alcohol-related outcomes among both genders, many studies have documented a stronger association among females than among males (e.g. Stein et al. 1988; Widom et al. 1995, 2007; Simpson & Miller, 2002).
