Datasets for "Autobiographical memory of care-experienced young people: Memory characteristics and associations with maltreatment and mental health"

Data collection method:

Participants were recruited through children’s social services within two English local authorities as part of a larger study investigating mental health among young people in the English care system (Hiller et al., 2021). Young people and their carers completed questionnaires about the child's mental health, and social workers answered questions about the child's maltreatment experience. The young person also completed the autobiographical memory test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986), which was delivered 1:1 with the young person by a trained researcher, according to standard instructions. Participants were given an explanation of what a specific memory is (i.e., a single event that happens at a specific time, place and happens over a period of one day or less) and provided with practice cue words and feedback (e.g. “that’s a good example” if they gave a specific memory, or “can you tell me any more about that?” if they needed to provide more specific details). To ensure understanding of the task, the participant had to complete two correct practice rounds before progressing to the main task. Participants were then presented with 10 cue words in the following order: happy, lonely, interested, hurt, surprised, sad, successful, angry, safe, and careless. Participants were given one minute to recall and describe a specific memory in response to each cue. If they gave a non-specific memory, they were prompted to give more detail, e.g. “Can you think of anything else about that?” If participants did not provide a memory, a prompt was given after 30 seconds to encourage them to describe the first memory they could think of, e.g. “It can just be the first thing that pops into your head when you see the word___”. Up to two prompts were given for each word, before proceeding to the next cue. The task was audio recorded. Following transcription, the content of each memory (i.e., response to each cue word) was coded by a researcher blind to both the young person’s maltreatment history and mental health. All responses were coded for: specificity, valence, importance, and the relational nature of the memory. Where the participant described more than one memory, the first complete memory was coded (McCrory et al., 2017). For specificity, memories were coded as either (0) overgeneral or (1) specific. For valence, memories were coded as: (0) positive memory, (1) neutral memory, and (2) negative memory. For memory importance, a score of 0 reflected a ‘mild’ event; 1 reflected a ‘moderate’ event; and 2 reflected a ‘major’ event. For the relational nature of a memory, a score of 0 reflects a non-interpersonal memory; 1 reflects a witnessed memory; and 2 reflects an interpersonal memory.

Data processing and preparation activities:

Data is fully anonymised, with the use of ID numbers for each participant instead of names.

Technical details and requirements:

SPSS is required to view the data files.