Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to develop and validate a short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (the CTQ-SF) as a screening measure for maltreatment histories in both clinical and nonreferred groups.


METHODS
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the 70 original CTQ items were used to create a 28-item version of the scale (25 clinical items and three validity items) and test the measurement invariance of the 25 clinical items across four samples: 378 adult substance abusing patients from New York City, 396 adolescent psychiatric inpatients, 625 substance abusing individuals from southwest Texas, and 579 individuals from a normative community sample (combined N=1978).


RESULTS
Results showed that the CTQ-SF's items held essentially the same meaning across all four samples (i.e., measurement invariance). Moreover, the scale demonstrated good criterion-related validity in a subsample of adolescents on whom corroborative data were available.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the viability of the CTQ-SF across diverse clinical and nonreferred populations.
Bernstein
David P
DP
Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Dealy Hall, 3rd Floor, Bronx, NY 10458, USA.
Stein
Judith A
JA
Newcomb
Michael D
MD
Walker
Edward
E
Pogge
David
D
Ahluvalia
Taruna
T
Stokes
John
J
Handelsman
Leonard
L
Medrano
Martha
M
Desmond
David
D
Zule
William
W
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000145:classification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States