restrictions, interaction analyses did not adjust for co-occurring maltreatments. However, since co-occurring maltreatments did not explain the main effects of sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and physical neglect on alcohol dependence, they are unlikely to explain the interaction effects. (4) Retrospective reports of childhood maltreatment play an important role in research (Rutter et al. 2001), but are vulnerable to recall bias. However, sibling verification of adult reports of childhood maltreatment (Bifulco et al. 1997) and good retrospective recall of maltreatment in prospective studies (Robins et al. 1985; Johnson et al. 1999; Nelson et al. 2010) support the validity of such measures. Moreover, requiring official records to verify maltreatment is unfeasible in a study this size, and could produce false negatives for moderate maltreatments that are never officially reported. Further, adult reports of childhood maltreatment could be biased if Childhood maltreatments and risk for alcohol dependence 1053 respondents with current alcohol dependence report maltreatment differently from those with no current alcohol dependence diagnosis. This could happen if mood-congruent recall bias (Bower, 1981) affected reporting of childhood maltreatments, since those with current alcohol dependence are more likely to have depressed mood than others (Schuckit et al. 1997; Hasin et al. 2007).
