Measuring Reactions to Sexual Trauma among Children: Comparing the Children's Impact of Traumatic Events Scale and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children

Abstract

This study examined convergent and discriminant validity between the Children's Impact of Traumatic Events Scale—revised (CITES-R) and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) in a sample of 80 sexually abused children. Convergent and discriminant validity between the CITES-R post-traumatic stress measure and the TSCC clinical scales were demonstrated. Also, convergent and discriminant validity for the CITES-R Eroticism scale were supported. More specifically, the CITES-R Eroticism scale was significantly associated with the TSCC Sexual Concerns (SC) scale (particularly the SC Preoccupation subscale), but was unrelated to the other TSCC clinical scales. Partial support for the expected relationships between the CITES-R Social Reactions and Attributions subscales and the TSCC clinical scales was noted. As expected, the CITES-R Social Support subscale was modestly associated with TSCC measures of depression and anger, whereas the CITES-R Negative Reactions by Others subscale was significantly related to symptoms on all six TSCC clinical scales. Furthermore, the CITES-R Self-Blame/Guilt, Personal Vulnerability, and Empowerment subscales were significantly associated with the majority of the TSCC clinical scales, whereas the CITES-R Dangerous World subscale (which also demonstrated poor internal consistency) was not significantly associated with any of the six TSCC clinical scales.

Dissociation predicts later attention problems in sexually abused children

“…However, because these are only bivariate relationships and thus do not take into account other potential influences, we cannot draw firm conclusions about how they may or may not impact later functioning. Consistent with studies using similar samples of sexually abused children as well as similar measures of trauma symptoms (e.g., Crouch et al, 1999), dissociative symptoms were highly correlated with PTSD symptoms.…”

“…Models were compared using model fit indices, specifically the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) Table 1 displays descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and range) for all continuous variables in the current study. Mean scores for scales such as PTSD and Dissociation are consistent with other self-report survey samples of sexually abused children (e.g., Crouch, Smith, Ezzell, & Saunders, 1999). Table 2 presents mean differences for attention problem scores among categorical variables including gender, frequency of abuse, and relationship to perpetrator.…”

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children in an At-Risk Sample of Youth

“…With several exceptions (i.e., Finkelhor et al, 2007;Nilsson et al, 2008;Singer et al, 1995), the TSCC has been primarily used in clinical settings, particularly to assess trauma for children and adolescents who have been victims of sexual abuse (Bal et al, 2004;Crouch, Smith, Ezzell, & Saunders, 1999), victims of assault (McCart et al, 2005), exposed to domestic violence (Carter, Kay, George, & King, 2003), and exposed to parental methamphetamine abuse (Ostler, Bahar, & Jesse, 2010). Although the TSCC has generally been applied to clinical samples, factor structures of the instrument were explored using nonclinical samples, and have yet to be confirmed in a clinical sample.…”

Posttraumatic Stress among Youths in Juvenile Detention

“…Specifically, the subscale measures factors including thoughts, memories, and sensations of past traumatic events, fears of men and women, and avoidance of negative thoughts and memories. The TSC-C has been verified as reliable and valid for measuring PTS in children and adolescents (Crouch, Smith, Ezzell, & Saunders, 1999;Fricker & Smith, 2001); the Cronbach alpha for the PTS subscale was .86 for this sample.…”