The Child PTSD Symptom Scale: A Preliminary Examination of its Psychometric Properties

TLDR

The Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) was created to assess the severity of DSM‑IV posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in children exposed to trauma. The study aimed to develop and preliminarily validate the CPSS for use with children and adolescents. The CPSS was administered to 75 school‑age children approximately two years after the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. The CPSS showed high internal consistency and test‑retest reliability, strong convergent validity with the CPTSD‑RI, lower correlations with depression and anxiety supporting discriminant validity, and overall appears to be a useful tool for assessing PTSD severity and screening diagnosis among traumatized children.

Abstract

Abstract Reports on the development and preliminary validation of the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) for children and adolescents. The CPSS is a new instrument that was developed to assess the severity of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in children exposed to trauma. The CPSS was administered to 75 school-age children approximately 2 years after the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. The psychometric properties of the CPSS show high internal consistency and test-retest reliability for both the total score and the three subscales. Convergent validity with the Child Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (CPTSD-RI) was established. As expected, the correlations of the CPSS with depression and anxiety measures were lower than those with the CPTSD-RI, providing some support for discriminant validity of the CPSS. These results suggest that the CPSS is a useful tool for the assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity and for the screening of PTSD diagnosis among traumatized children.