Measuring trauma and stressful events in childhood and adolescence among patients with first-episode psychosis: Initial factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Trauma Experiences Checklist

Abstract

Past trauma and stressful events, especially in childhood and adolescence, are common among individuals with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Traumatic experiences are thought to be a socio-environmental risk factor not only for poorer outcomes, but also potentially for the onset of these disorders. Because improved measurement tools are needed, we developed and studied, among 205 first-episode psychosis patients, the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and initial validity of the Trauma Experiences Checklist (TEC), our measure of trauma and stressful events during childhood/adolescence. We assessed validity of subscales using correlations with Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form, Parental Harsh Discipline, Violence Exposure, and TEC-Informant Version scores. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in two internally consistent subscales (Cronbach’s =0.79 and 0.80, respectively), interpersonal abuse and family stress, and violence, death, and legal involvement. Scores from the former subscale were substantially associated with CTQ-SF physical, emotional, and sexual abuse (r=0.42–0.57, all p<0.001) and Violence Exposure (r=0.49, p<0.001). On the other hand, violence, death, and legal involvement scores were most highly correlated with Violence Exposure (r=0.49, p<0.001), and not with most CTQ-SF subscales. The TEC is a potentially useful tool in assessing diverse traumatic life events across various social contexts during childhood and adolescence.

Auditory and non-auditory hallucinations in first-episode psychosis: Differential associations with diverse clinical features

“…We used seven instruments that assess childhood/adolescent adversity: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form (CTQ-SF; Bernstein et al, 2003), the Trauma Experiences Checklist (TEC; Cristofaro et al, 2013), Parental Nurturance (Barnes and Windle, 1987), Parental Harsh Discipline (Ge et al, 1994; Mrug et al, 2008), Violence Exposure (Mrug et al, 2008), Friends' Delinquent Behavior (Mrug et al, 2012), and School Connectedness Scale (Sieving et al, 2011). We referred to a previously conducted factor analysis with these seven instruments in this sample in order to reduce the large number of the variables and simplify the analysis.…”

Delusions in first-episode psychosis: Principal component analysis of twelve types of delusions and demographic and clinical correlates of resulting domains

“…Childhood adversity was assessed using seven instruments: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form (CTQ-SF; Bernstein et al, 2003), Trauma Experiences Checklist (TEC; Cristofaro et al, 2013), Parental Nurturance (Barnes and Windle, 1987), Parental Harsh Discipline (Ge et al, 1994; Mrug et al, 2008), Violence Exposure (Mrug et al, 2008), Friends' Delinquent Behavior (Mrug et al, 2012), and School Connectedness Scale (Sieving et al, 2001). In the present analysis, in order to reduce the subscales of these measures of childhood adversity to their latent constructs, we relied on factors derived from a previously conducted factor analysis in this sample (McGuire et al, in progress).…”

The Trauma and Life Events (TALE) checklist: development of a tool for improving routine screening in people with psychosis

“…The PTSD Assessment Tool for Schizophrenia (PATS; Mueser, Lu, Rosenberg, & Wolfe, 2010) assesses lifetime, symptom and treatment-related trauma, but is a semi-structured research interview unsuitable for routine clinical use. The Trauma Experience Checklist (TEC; Cristofaro et al, 2013) is relatively more suitable for clinical practice and was developed to assess abuse, neglect and stressful life events. However, it consists of 41 items and so is too lengthy to complete in clinical services (Beidas et al, 2015).…”