Initial reliability and validity of a new retrospective measure of child abuse and neglect.
OBJECTIVE
This report presents initial findings on the reliability and validity of a new retrospective measure of child abuse and neglect, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.


METHODS
Two hundred eighty-six drug- or alcohol-dependent patients were given the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire as part of a larger test battery, and 40 of these patients were given the questionnaire again after an interval of 2 to 6 months. Sixty-eight of the patients were also given a structured interview for child abuse and neglect, the Childhood Trauma Interview, that was developed by the authors.


RESULTS
Principal-components analysis of responses on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire yielded four rotated orthogonal factors: physical and emotional abuse, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, and physical neglect. Cronbach's alpha for the factors ranged from 0.79 to 0.94, indicating high internal consistency. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire also demonstrated good test-retest reliability over a 2- to 6-month interval (intraclass correlation = 0.88), as well as convergence with the Childhood Trauma Interview, indicating that patients' reports of child abuse and neglect based on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were highly stable, both over time and across type of instruments.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings provide strong initial support for the reliability and validity of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.
D P
DP
Bernstein
L
L
Fink
L
L
Handelsman
J
J
Foote
M
M
Lovejoy
K
K
Wenzel
E
E
Sapareto
J
J
Ruggiero
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards