Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

The effects of trauma type, age of onset and sex on transdiagnostic psychopathological traits

Nature Mental Health volume 4, pages 439–450 (2026)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The effects of trauma on enduring transdiagnostic psychopathological traits are unclear. Here we examined associations between exposure to sexual and/or physical violence and 5 empirically derived psychopathological traits in 842 community-dwelling adults with varied mental health histories (37.89% male; age 18–45, mean 29.73, s.d. 7.77). We further tested for dose–response, developmental timing and sex-specific effects. Trauma was exclusively associated with negative affectivity and antisocial schizotypy. One sexual trauma exposure elevated both constructs and attenuated sex differences in their expression, with no additional effects of cumulative exposure or developmental timing. One physical violence exposure elevated both constructs when experienced before mid-adolescence and adulthood, with dose–response effects for antisocial schizotypy, especially in males. Physical violence more strongly affected negative affectivity in females with earlier first exposure. These findings indicate that trauma influences select transdiagnostic traits in a way that depends on trauma type and dose, and survivor sex and age, emphasizing the importance of personalized care.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Bass-ackwards results and tier 5 component loadings.
Fig. 2: Comparisons of those exposed and not exposed.
Fig. 3: Interactions for interpersonal physical violence.
Fig. 4: Interactions for sexual trauma.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data used in the present paper were collected as part of an ongoing project that is not yet publicly available. The project data will be released upon completion; inquiries may be directed to senior author Alex Fornito (alex.fornito@monash.edu).

Code availability

The code to run the structural equation models can be found in the additional lavaan code file provided (Supplementary Code 1). The full code used for all analyses can otherwise be found at https://github.com/cicadawing/Effects-Trauma-Transidagnostic.

References

  1. Herman, J. L. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (Hachette, 2015).

  2. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (US) Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US), 2014).

  3. Bonanno, G. A., Westphal, M. & Mancini, A. D. Resilience to loss and potential trauma. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 7, 511–535 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Carr, C. P., Martins, C. M. S., Stingel, A. M., Lemgruber, V. B. & Juruena, M. F. The role of early life stress in adult psychiatric disorders: a systematic review according to childhood trauma subtypes. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 201, 1007–1020 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Dunn, E. C., Nishimi, K., Powers, A. & Bradley, B. Is developmental timing of trauma exposure associated with depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adulthood? J. Psychiatr. Res. 84, 119–127 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Daníelsdóttir, H. B. et al. Adverse childhood experiences and adult mental health outcomes. JAMA Psychiatry 81, 586–594 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Benjet, C. et al. The epidemiology of traumatic event exposure worldwide: results from the World Mental Health Survey Consortium. Psychol. Med. 46, 327–343 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Gerber, M. M. et al. Influence of multiple traumatic event types on mental health outcomes: does count matter? J. Psychopathol. Behav. Assess. 40, 645–654 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Suliman, S. et al. Cumulative effect of multiple trauma on symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression in adolescents. Compr. Psychiatry 50, 121–127 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Ellis, B. J. & Del Giudice, M. Developmental adaptation to stress: an evolutionary perspective. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 70, 111–139 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Stevens, J. S., van Rooij, S. J. H. & Jovanovic, T. Developmental contributors to trauma response: the importance of sensitive periods, early environment, and sex differences. Curr. Top. Behav. Neurosci. 38, 1–22 (2018).

  12. Blakemore, S. J. & Mills, K. L. Is adolescence a sensitive period for sociocultural processing? Annu. Rev. Psychol. 65, 187–207 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Lamblin, M., Murawski, C., Whittle, S. & Fornito, A. Social connectedness, mental health and the adolescent brain. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 80, 57–68 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Dunn, E. C., McLaughlin, K. A., Slopen, N., Rosand, J. & Smoller, J. W. Developmental timing of child maltreatment and symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation in young adulthood: results from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health. Depress. Anxiety 30, 955–964 (2013).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Maercker, A., Michael, T., Fehm, L., Becker, E. S. & Margraf, J. Age of traumatisation as a predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression in young women. Br. J. Psychiatry 184, 482–487 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. McCutcheon, V. V. et al. Accumulation of trauma over time and risk for depression in a twin sample. Psychol. Med. 39, 431–441 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Schoedl, A. F. et al. The clinical correlates of reported childhood sexual abuse: an association between age at trauma onset and severity of depression and PTSD in adults. J. Child Sex. Abuse 19, 156–170 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Brancu, M. et al. Subthreshold posttraumatic stress disorder: a meta-analytic review of DSM-IV prevalence and a proposed DSM-5 approach to measurement. Psychol. Trauma Theory Res. Pract. Policy 8, 222–232 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Carlyle, M. et al. Cannabis-induced dysphoria/paranoia mediates the link between childhood trauma and psychotic-like experiences in young cannabis users. Schizophr. Res. 238, 178–184 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Loewy, R. L. et al. Childhood trauma and clinical high risk for psychosis. Schizophr. Res. 205, 10–14 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Keyes, K. M. et al. Childhood maltreatment and the structure of common psychiatric disorders. Br. J. Psychiatry 200, 107–115 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Kotov, R. et al. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): a dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 126, 454–477 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Eaton, N. R. et al. An invariant dimensional liability model of gender differences in mental disorder prevalence: evidence from a national sample. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 121, 282–288 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Cusack, S. E., Maihofer, A. X., Bustamante, D., Amstadter, A. B. & Duncan, L. E. Genetic influences on testosterone and PTSD. J. Psychiatr. Res. 174, 8–11 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Glover, E. M., Jovanovic, T. & Norrholm, S. D. Estrogen and extinction of fear memories: implications for posttraumatic stress disorder treatment. Biol. Psychiatry 78, 178–185 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Seligowski, A. V., Hurly, J., Mellen, E., Ressler, K. J. & Ramikie, T. S. Translational studies of estradiol and progesterone in fear and PTSD. Eur. J. Psychotraumatology 11, 1723857 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Marceau, K., Ram, N., Houts, R. M., Grimm, K. J. & Susman, E. J. Individual differences in boys’ and girls’ timing and tempo of puberty: modeling development with nonlinear growth models. Dev. Psychol. 47, 1389–1409 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) (American Psychiatric Association, 2022).

  29. Feczko, E. et al. The heterogeneity problem: approaches to identify psychiatric subtypes. Trends Cogn. Sci. 23, 584–601 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Galatzer-Levy, I. R. & Bryant, R. A. 636,120 ways to have posttraumatic stress disorder. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 8, 651–662 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Segal, A. et al. Embracing variability in the search for biological mechanisms of psychiatric illness. Trends Cogn. Sci. 29, 85–99 (2025).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Krueger, R. F. & Markon, K. E. Reinterpreting comorbidity: a model-based approach to understanding and classifying psychopathology. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2, 111–133 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  33. Haslam, N., Holland, E. & Kuppens, P. Categories versus dimensions in personality and psychopathology: a quantitative review of taxometric research. Psychol. Med. 42, 903–920 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Markon, K. E., Chmielewski, M. & Miller, C. J. The reliability and validity of discrete and continuous measures of psychopathology: a quantitative review. Psychol. Bull. 137, 856–879 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Newson, J. J., Hunter, D. & Thiagarajan, T. C. The heterogeneity of mental health assessment. Front. Psychiatry 11, 76 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  36. Kotov, R. et al. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): a quantitative nosology based on consensus of evidence. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 17, 83–108 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Berenbaum, H., Raghavan, C., Le, H.-N., Vernon, L. L. & Gomez, J. J. A taxonomy of emotional disturbances. Clin. Psychol. Sci. Pract. 10, 206 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Levin-Aspenson, H. F. & Greene, A. L. Rethinking trauma-related psychopathology in the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). J. Trauma. Stress 37, 361–371 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Conradt, E., Crowell, S. E. & Cicchetti, D. Using development and psychopathology principles to inform the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework. Dev. Psychopathol. 33, 1521–1525 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  40. Nigg, J. T. Editorial: The shape of the nosology to come in developmental psychopathology. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 56, 397–399 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Hyland, P., Karatzias, T., Ford, J. D., Fox, R. & Spinazzola, J. The latent structure of child and adolescent psychopathology and its association with different forms of trauma and suicidality and self-harm. Res. Child Adolesc. Psychopathol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-00925-1 (2022).

  42. Fried, E. I. & Nesse, R. M. Depression is not a consistent syndrome: an investigation of unique symptom patterns in the STAR*D study. J. Affect. Disord. 172, 96–102 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Schleim, S. Why mental disorders are brain disorders. And why they are not: ADHD and the challenges of heterogeneity and reification. Front. Psychiatry 13, 943049 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  44. Helmchen, H. & Linden, M. Subthreshold disorders in psychiatry: clinical reality, methodological artifact, and the double-threshold problem. Compr. Psychiatry 41, 1–7 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Kotov, R., Ruggero, C. J., Krueger, R. F., Watson, D. & Zimmerman, M. The perils of hierarchical exclusion rules: a further word of caution. Depress. Anxiety 35, 903–904 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Özel, B., Karakaya, E., Köksal, F., Altinoz, A. E. & Yilmaz-Karaman, I. G. Gender bias of antisocial and borderline personality disorders among psychiatrists. Arch. Womens Ment. Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-024-01519-0 (2024).

  47. Tiego, J. et al. Precision behavioral phenotyping as a strategy for uncovering the biological correlates of psychopathology. Nat. Ment. Health 1, 304–315 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  48. DeYoung, C. G. et al. The distinction between symptoms and traits in the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). J. Pers. 90, 20–33 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Forbes, M. K. Improving hierarchical models of individual differences: an extension of Goldberg’s bass-ackward method. Psychol. Methods https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000546 (2023).

  50. Goldberg, L. R. Doing it all bass-ackwards: the development of hierarchical factor structures from the top down. J. Res. Personal. 40, 347–358 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Cervin, M. et al. A psychometric evaluation of the expanded version of the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II) in children and adolescents. Assessment 31, 588–601 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Ringwald, W. R. et al. Structure of pathological personality traits through the lens of the CAT-PD model. Assessment 30, 2276–2295 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  53. Wright, A. G. C. & Simms, L. J. On the structure of personality disorder traits: conjoint analyses of the CAT-PD, PID-5, and NEO-PI-3 trait models. Personal. Disord. 5, 43–54 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  54. Kushner, S. C., Tackett, J. L. & De Clercq, B. The joint hierarchical structure of adolescent personality pathology: converging evidence from two approaches to measurement. J. Can. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 22, 199–205 (2013).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  55. Soto, C. J. & John, O. P. The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 113, 117–143 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Bedwell, J. S. et al. Latent factor modeling of four schizotypy dimensions with theory of mind and empathy. PLoS ONE 9, e113853 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  57. Ragsdale, K. A., Mitchell, J. C., Cassisi, J. E. & Bedwell, J. S. Comorbidity of schizotypy and psychopathy: skin conductance to affective pictures. Psychiatry Res. 210, 1000–1007 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. Ragsdale, K. A. & Bedwell, J. S. Relationships between dimensional factors of psychopathy and schizotypy. Front. Psychol. 4, 482 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Forbes, M. K. et al. Elemental psychopathology: distilling constituent symptoms and patterns of repetition in the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5. Psychol. Med. 54, 886–894 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Dunn, E. C. et al. What life course theoretical models best explain the relationship between exposure to childhood adversity and psychopathology symptoms: recency, accumulation, or sensitive periods? Psychol. Med. 48, 2550–2561 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Fergusson, D. M., Lynskey, M. T. & Horwood, L. J. Childhood sexual abuse and psychiatric disorder in young adulthood: I. Prevalence of sexual abuse and factors associated with sexual abuse. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 35, 1355–1364 (1996).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Strange, D. & Takarangi, M. K. T. Memory distortion for traumatic events: the role of mental imagery. Front. Psychiatry 6, 27 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  63. Brewin, C. R. in True and False Recovered Memories: Toward A Reconciliation of the Debate (ed. Belli, R.) 149–173 (Springer Science + Business Media, 2012); https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1195-6_5

  64. Casey, B. J. et al. The adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study: imaging acquisition across 21 sites. Dev. Cogn. Neurosci. 32, 43–54 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  65. Biedermann, S. V. et al. Childhood adversities are common among trans people and associated with adult depression and suicidality. J. Psychiatr. Res. 141, 318–324 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  66. Sexual violence —victimisation. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/sexual-violence-victimisation (2021).

  67. Mathews, B. et al. The prevalence of child maltreatment in Australia: findings from a national survey. Med. J. Aust. 218, S13–S18 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  68. Kotov, R. et al. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) in psychiatric practice and research. Psychol. Med. 52, 1666–1678 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  69. Ruggero, C. J. et al. Integrating the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) into clinical practice. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 87, 1069–1084 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  70. GBD 2019 Mental Disorders Collaborators Global, regional, and national burden of 12 mental disorders in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet Psychiatry 9, 137–150 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Melo, A. P. S. et al. All-cause and cause-specific mortality among people with severe mental illness in Brazil’s public health system, 2000–15: a retrospective study. Lancet Psychiatry 9, 771–781 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  72. Simms, L. J. et al. Computerized adaptive assessment of personality disorder: introducing the CAT-PD project. J. Pers. Assess. 93, 380–389 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  73. Long, T. A., Reinhard, E., Sellbom, M. & Anderson, J. L. An examination of the reliability and validity of the Comprehensive Assessment of Traits Relevant to Personality Disorder–Static Form (CAT-PD-SF). Assessment 28, 1345–1357 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  74. Hooper, L. M., Stockton, P., Krupnick, J. L. & Green, B. L. Development, use, and psychometric properties of the trauma history questionnaire. J. Loss Trauma 16, 258–283 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Bernstein, D. P. et al. Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Child Abuse Negl. 27, 169–190 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  76. Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0). Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/australian-and-new-zealand-standard-industrial-classification-anzsic/latest-release (2013).

  77. Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/australian-standard-classification-education-asced/latest-release (2001).

  78. Australian Qualifications Framework (Australian Qualifications Framework Council, 2011).

  79. Galobardes, B., Lynch, J. & Smith, G. D. Measuring socioeconomic position in health research. Br. Med. Bull. 81–82, 21–37 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  80. Lindberg, M. H., Chen, G., Olsen, J. A. & Abelsen, B. Combining education and income into a socioeconomic position score for use in studies of health inequalities. BMC Public Health 22, 969 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  81. First, M. B. & Williams, J. B. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5: Research Version (SCID-5-RV): Reference Interview: ‘Anxious Decorator’ (Biometrics Research, Psychiatry, Columbia Univ., 2017).

  82. Maniaci, M. R. & Rogge, R. D. Caring about carelessness: participant inattention and its effects on research. J. Res. Personal. 48, 61–83 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  83. R Core Team R: A Language and Enuironment/or Statistical Computing (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2013).

  84. Honaker, J., King, G. & Blackwell, M. Amelia II: a program for missing data. J. Stat. Softw. 45, 1–47 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  85. Revelle, W. Psych: Procedures for Psychological, Psychometric, and Personality Research (Northwestern Univ. 2024).

  86. Greenacre, M. et al. Principal component analysis. Nat. Rev. Methods Primer 2, 1–21 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  87. Cooperman, A. W. & Waller, N. G. Heywood you go away! Examining causes, effects, and treatments for Heywood cases in exploratory factor analysis. Psychol. Methods 27, 156–176 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  88. Braeken, J. & van Assen, M. A. L. M. An empirical Kaiser criterion. Psychol. Methods 22, 450–466 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  89. Josse, J. & Husson, F. Selecting the number of components in principal component analysis using cross-validation approximations. Comput. Stat. Data Anal. 56, 1869–1879 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  90. Goretzko, D. & Bühner, M. Robustness of factor solutions in exploratory factor analysis. Behaviormetrika 49, 131–148 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  91. Kline, R. B. Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling (Guilford Publications, 2023).

  92. Joreskog, K. G. Simultaneous factor analysis in several populations. Psychometrika 36, 409–426 (1971).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  93. Sörbom, D. A general method for studying differences in factor means and factor structure between groups. Br. J. Math. Stat. Psychol. 27, 229–239 (1974).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  94. Benjamini, Y. & Hochberg, Y. Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B 57, 289–300 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  95. Brambor, T., Clark, W. R. & Golder, M. Understanding interaction models: improving empirical analyses. Polit. Anal. 14, 63–82 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  96. Esarey, J. & Sumner, J. L. Marginal effects in interaction models: determining and controlling the false positive rate. Comp. Polit. Stud. 51, 1144–1176 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  97. Nelson, K. & Fivush, R. The emergence of autobiographical memory: a social cultural developmental theory. Psychol. Rev. 111, 486–511 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  98. Diamantidis, N. A., Karlis, D. & Giakoumakis, E. A. Unsupervised stratification of cross-validation for accuracy estimation. Artif. Intell. 116, 1–16 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  99. Cohen, J. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (Routledge, 2013).

  100. Costello, A. & Osborne, J. Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Pract. Assess. Res. Eval. 10, 1–9 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  101. Tabachnick, B. G. & Fidell, L. S. Using Multivariate Statistics (Pearson Education, 2013).

Download references

Acknowledgements

A.F. is supported by the Australian Research Council (ID FL220100184) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC; ID 1197431). M.A.B. is supported by the NHMRC (ID 2025415). J.T. is supported by the NHMRC (ID 2033976).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological Sciences, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, and Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Toby Constable, Jeggan Tiego, Kane Pavlovich, Nancy Ong Tran, Bree Hartshorn, Jessica Kwee, Kate Fortune, Kate Thompson, Sam Brown, Rebecca O’Neill, James McLauchlan, Maggie Eyers, Mark A. Bellgrove & Alex Fornito

  2. Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, New York, NY, USA

    Roman Kotov

Authors
  1. Toby Constable
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jeggan Tiego
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kane Pavlovich
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nancy Ong Tran
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Bree Hartshorn
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jessica Kwee
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Kate Fortune
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Kate Thompson
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Sam Brown
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Rebecca O’Neill
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  11. James McLauchlan
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Maggie Eyers
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Roman Kotov
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Mark A. Bellgrove
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Alex Fornito
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

T.C., J.T. and A.F. conceptualized the study and interpreted the results. T.C. prepared and analyzed the data and wrote the paper. K.P. reviewed the R code for data analysis, and J.T., M.A.B., R.K. and A.F. revised the paper. J.T., N.O.T., B.H., J.K., K.F., K.T., S.B., R.O., J.M., M.A.B., M.E., R.K. and A.F. contributed to data acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Toby Constable.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Mental Health thanks Chantal Michel and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Information, including additional sample and recruitment information, sensitivity analysis results and additional complementary information concerning the analyses described in the main text.

Reporting Summary (download PDF )

Supplementary Table 1 (download CSV )

A report containing all model parameters.

Supplementary Code 1 (download PDF )

Code for the lavaan models and repeated stratified k-fold.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Constable, T., Tiego, J., Pavlovich, K. et al. The effects of trauma type, age of onset and sex on transdiagnostic psychopathological traits. Nat. Mental Health 4, 439–450 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-026-00589-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-026-00589-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing