Psychometric evaluation of the children's impact of traumatic events scale-revised.
OBJECTIVE
To measure the internal consistency and construct validity of the Children's Impact of Traumatic Events Scale-Revised (CITES-R).


METHODS
158 sexually abused children, ages 7-12, and a nonabusive parent or primary caretaker completed a series of measures, including the CITES-R. A subsample of 17 repeated the assessment after 1 to 2 months with intervening treatment.


RESULTS
Internal consistency for the CITES-R scales averaged .69. Associations with other measures were in predicted directions, although most were modest in size. Parent-report measures were virtually unrelated to any child-report measure, including the CITES-R. Change over time during treatment was noted on most symptom scales.


CONCLUSIONS
The psychometric adequacy of the CITES-R was moderately supported. The main symptom scales of the instrument performed well. The performance of other scales was more variable.
Chaffin
M
M
Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City 73190, USA.
Shultz
S K
SK
D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires