Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) in Brazilian samples of different age groups: findings from confirmatory factor analysis.
The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) is internationally accepted as a key tool for the assessment of childhood abuse and neglect experiences. However, there are relative few psychometric studies available and some authors have proposed two different factor solutions. We examined the dimensional structure and internal consistency of the Brazilian version of the CTQ. A total of 1,925 participants from eight different clinical and non-clinical samples including adolescents, adults and elders were considered in this study. First, we performed Confirmatory Factor Analysis to investigate the goodness of fit of the two proposed competitive factor structure models for the CTQ. We also investigated the internal consistency of all factors. Second, multi-group analyses were used to investigate measurement invariance and population heterogeneity across age groups and sex. Our findings revealed that the alternative factor structure as opposed to the original factor structure was the most appropriate model within adolescents and adults Brazilian samples. We provide further evidence for the validity and reliability of the CTQ within the Brazilian samples and report that the alternative model showed an improvement in fit indexes and may be a better alternative over the original model.
Centre of Studies and Research in Traumatic Stress, Post-Graduate Program in Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of the Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Rodrigo
R
Grassi-Oliveira
Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Hugo
H
Cogo-Moreira
Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Giovanni Abrahão
GA
Salum
Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Elisa
E
Brietzke
Centre of Studies and Research in Traumatic Stress, PUCRS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Thiago Wendt
TW
Viola
Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Gisele Gus
GG
Manfro
Centre of Studies and Research in Traumatic Stress, Post-Graduate Program in Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of the Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Christian Haag
CH
Kristensen
Centre of Studies and Research in Traumatic Stress, Post-Graduate Program in Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of the Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Adriane Xavier
AX
Arteche
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*