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.
Conclusion: The CTQ is a reliable and valid self-report measure for assessing childhood trauma in both inpatients and outpatients with schizophrenia.
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