title: Screening for preschool posttraumatic stress disorder with the Child Behavior Checklist.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the psychometric properties and utility of a Child Behavior Checklist-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CBCL-PTSD) Scale to screen for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in traumatized preschool children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data for this study were drawn from a study of young child trauma and consisted of 62 traumatized children, 23 months through 6 years of age. The children's mothers were interviewed about PTSD symptoms and then completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The modified CBCL-PTSD correlated highly with the number of PTSD symptoms from the interview (r = 0.66). The CBCL-PTSD scale predicted PTSD symptoms above and beyond the internalizing and externalizing scales of the CBCL. A cutoff score of nine on this scale possessed the best sensitivity and specificity in classifying those traumatized children who met diagnostic criteria for PTSD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The modified CBCL-PTSD scale could be a useful cost-effective tool to screen for PTSD in traumatized, preschool-age children.
authors.affiliation: University of New Orleans, LA, USA. cdehon@lsuhsc.edu
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dehon
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Scheeringa
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D009035:Mothers; D015588:Observer Variation; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires