Childhood Maltreatment and Risky Substance Use Behaviors: The Mediating Roles of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms & Callous Unemotional Traits.

A robust relationship has been established between childhood maltreatment and risky substance use. Posttraumatic stress symptoms and callous-unemotional (CU) traits, both of which can be consequences of childhood maltreatment, have been implicated as potential mediators of this relationship, but despite phenotypic overlap have not been examined within the same model. The current cross-sectional study examined the indirect effect of childhood maltreatment severity on risky drug and alcohol use behaviors though PTSS and CU traits.