Objective: Experiencing traumatic events in childhood is related to various psychiatric problems in adulthood, and a comprehensive tool for measuring childhood trauma is necessary in this field. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties, and factor structure of the Korean version of the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form (ETISR-SF). ETISR-SF measures the childhood trauma, including physical, and emotional sexual abuse, as well as general traumas.
Methods: A clinical and nonclinical samples comprising of 97 subjects from a local community, and 207 patients with the ETISR-SF, were assessed. Other tools, including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used to assess clinical symptoms. Additional data from 69 college students was used to examine the test-retest reliability.
Results: The original four-factor model was supported by the confirmatory factor analysis scale [χ(2) (351, n=304)=3374.025, p<0.001, TLI=0.969, CFI=0.972, RMSEA=0.030]. The ETISR-SF was found to be a reliable instrument (Cronbach's α=0.869). Comparison of the ETISR-SF scores discriminated the clinical group from that of the control group. The measure showed good convergent and divergent validity, in that the scores were correlated higher with the scores on the CTQ-SF (0.691) than with the scores on the BDI or BAI (0.424, 0.397 respectively). The ETISR-SF was found to be temporally stable, showing the moderate to high correlation (0.844).
Conclusion: These findings suggest that the Korean version of the ETISR-SF appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of reported childhood trauma.
Keywords: Depression; Early trauma; Trauma inventory; Validation study.