1.    2 weeks or longer in hospital
2.    Parental divorce
3.    Parental unemployment
4.    A frightening experience that was thought about for years after
5.    Being sent away from home for wrongdoing
6.    Family problems due to parental substance abuse
7.    Physical abuse by someone ‘close’

Many studies, including mine, have used retrospective reports to assess the long-term consequences of previous events. However, many other factors may bias the recall of such childhood events. In particular, depressed mood may increase the likelihood of recall of negative experiences. The aim of the study was to assess whether such factors are associated with consistency in the reporting of childhood adverse experiences. 
    The sample comprised 7466 adults from Canada’s National Population Health Survey who had in 1994/1995 (T1), and again in 2006/2007 (T2), reported on seven adverse experiences from their childhood. 
    Accurate recall of childhood experiences is difficult; 39% showed T1 vs. T2 inconsistency in their reports. The most important intervening variable in our study proved to be depression. For example, the accompanying graph shows that those who had developed  depression after T1 but before T2, had 2.25 the odds (likelihood) of reporting an adverse event at T2 that, for some reason, was not reported at T1!  The same relationship was found for increasing stress, but at a weaker level (odds ratios of 1.13 to 1.23). Furthermore, the development of depression was also associated, but negatively (-) with forgotten events – i.e. showing an odds ratio of -1.75,  indicating a reduced likelihood of ‘forgetting’ a previously reported event.
    Clearly, concurrent mental health factors can influence the reporting of traumatic childhood experiences. Thus, in similarity to results found in other research areas, studies that use retrospective reporting to estimate associations between childhood adversity and adult outcomes associated with mental health may be biased.

Source: Colman I, Kingsbury M, Garad Y, Zeng Y, Naicker K, Patten S, Jones PB, Wild TC, Thompson AH. (2016). Consistency in adult reporting of adverse childhood  experiences. Psychological Medicine 46(03), 543-549.