title: Factorial validity of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire in Italian psychiatric patients.
abstract: Early adverse experiences are associated with neurobiological changes and these may underlie the increased risk of psychopathology. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF) is the most commonly used instrument for assessing childhood maltreatment. Thus, the aim of our study was to investigate the factorial validity of an Italian version of the CTQ-SF in a sample of psychiatric inpatients by means of confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. The sample was composed of 471 psychiatric in-patients and out-patients (206 males and 265 females) aged 16-80 years (mean age=34.4 years [SD=16.3]) consecutively admitted to two psychiatric departments. All patients were administered the Italian version of the CTQ-SF. We tested five different factor models which lacked good fit, while the exploratory factor analysis supported the adequacy of a solution with three factors (Emotional Neglect/Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Physical Neglect/Abuse). The three factors had satisfactory internal consistency (ordinal Cronbach alphas >0.90). Our study supports results from previous research indicating the lack of structural invariance of the CTQ-SF in cross-cultural adaptations of the test, and the fact that, when measuring different types of childhood maltreatment, the difference between abuse and neglect may be not valid.
authors: Department of Human Sciences, European University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Innamorati
authors: Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors: Denise
authors: D
authors: Erbuto
authors: Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors: Paola
authors: P
authors: Venturini
authors: Mental Health Department, ASL RME, Rome, Italy.
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: Fagioli
authors: Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors: Federica
authors: F
authors: Ricci
authors: Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, United States.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Lester
authors: Section of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Infant-Maternal Science, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy.
authors: Mario
authors: M
authors: Amore
authors: Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Girardi
authors: Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: maurizio.pompili@uniroma1.it.
authors: Maurizio
authors: M
authors: Pompili
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000069586:Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult