title: Psychometric utility of the childhood trauma questionnaire with female street-based sex workers.
abstract: The present study examines the psychometric properties of a verbal, face-to-face administration of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) with female street-based sex workers (N = 171). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated a poor fit between our data and the instrument's established 5-factor structure. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) yielded four stable and usable factors corresponding to the Emotional Abuse, Emotional Neglect, Physical Abuse, and Sexual Abuse subscales of the CTQ; the Physical Neglect subscale did not emerge as a stable factor. Cross loading of many CTQ items onto more than one factor most likely produced the poor CFA fit, and indicated that abuse/neglect constructs were not conceptually distinct for our sample. Mean trauma scores did not differ significantly from published scores for female substance abusers. According to the CTQ Minimization/Denial scale, 42% of participants minimized their childhood maltreatment experiences. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods may be optimal for the acquisition of sensitive trauma information with wary and vulnerable street populations.
authors.affiliation: Cherie L. Villano, Charles Cleland, Andrew Rosenblum, Chunki Fong, Larry Nuttbrock, and Marie Marthol are affiliated with the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. (NDRI, Inc.), New York, NY. Joyce Wallace was Executive Director of the Foundation for Research on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (FROST’D), New York, NY.
authors.forename: Cherie L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Villano
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cleland
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosenblum
authors.forename: Chunki
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nuttbrock
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marthol
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wallace