title: The Toronto Obsessive-Compulsive Scale: Psychometrics of a Dimensional Measure of Obsessive-Compulsive Traits.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the Toronto Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (TOCS), a novel 21-item parent- or self-report questionnaire that covers wide variation in obsessive-compulsive (OC) traits, and to evaluate its psychometric properties in a community-based pediatric sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  The TOCS was completed for 16,718 children and adolescents between the ages of 6 and 17 years in a community setting. Internal consistency, convergent validity with the Obsessive-Compulsive Scale of the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL-OCS), divergent validity with the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) Symptoms and Normal Behaviour Rating Scale (SWAN), interrater reliability, as well as sensitivity and specificity of the TOCS were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The internal consistency of the 21 TOCS items was excellent (Cronbach's α = 0.94). TOCS was moderately correlated with the CBCL-OCS (Spearman correlation = 0.51) and poorly correlated with the SWAN (Pearson correlation = 0.02). Sensitivity and specificity analyses indicated that a TOCS total score of greater than 0 successfully discriminated community-reported obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) cases from noncases. OC traits were continuously distributed both at the total score and dimensional level in our pediatric community sample.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TOCS is a multidimensional measure of OC traits in children and adolescents with sound psychometric properties. TOCS reveals that OC traits are common and continuously distributed in a community sample. TOCS may be a useful measure for studies of the characteristics and etiology of OC traits.
authors.affiliation: Neurosciences and Mental Health Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Laura S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Genetics and Genome Biology Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto.
authors.forename: Christie L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.affiliation: Clinical research services at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dupuis
authors.affiliation: Neurosciences and Mental Health Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.affiliation: Health Policy and Management, Psychiatry and Neurosciences, and Psychology at the University of South Florida, Tampa; Rogers Behavioural Health in Tampa, and All Children's Hospital John's Hopkins Medicine in St. Petersburg, FL.
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Storch
authors.affiliation: Neurosciences and Mental Health Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada; University of Toronto.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crosbie
authors.affiliation: Neurosciences and Mental Health Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada; University of Toronto.
authors.forename: Russell J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Schachar
authors.affiliation: Genetics and Genome Biology Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto; University of Toronto; Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. Electronic address: paul.arnold@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Paul D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Arnold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010290:Parents; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Toronto Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (TOCS); general pediatric population; obsessive-compulsive disorder; obsessive-compulsive traits; psychometrics