Psychometric properties of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) in Korean patients with schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
Despite increasing interest in the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis, measures used to assess early trauma have not had their psychometric properties extensively tested among individuals with serious mental illness. This study investigated the reliability and validity of one of the most widely-used self-reports of early adversity, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Short Form (CTQ), among patients with schizophrenia.


METHODS
The CTQ was administered to 100 patients (52 inpatients and 48 outpatients) diagnosed with schizophrenia in three training hospitals. Internal consistency, four-week test-retest reliability and validity were calculated. Participants also completed the Trauma Antecedents Questionnaire (TAQ), the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Dissociative Experiences Scale-Taxon (DES-T).


RESULTS
Our analysis indicated high test-retest reliability (Spearman ρ=0.75) and internal consistency (Cronbach α=0.89). Concurrent validity was confirmed as each type of childhood trauma was significantly correlated with the corresponding subscales of the TAQ. In addition, the CTQ was positively related to post-traumatic stress symptoms and pathological dissociation, demonstrating the convergent validity of the scale.


CONCLUSIONS
The CTQ is a reliable and valid self-report measure for assessing childhood trauma in both inpatients and outpatients with schizophrenia.
Department of Psychiatry, Hanyang University Medical School, Seoul, South Korea.
Daeho
D
Kim
Hwallip
H
Bae
Changwoo
C
Han
Hyun Young
HY
Oh
Kai
K
Macdonald
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*