Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC): Reliability and Association With Abuse Exposure in a Multi-Site Study

• NCJ Number: 205554
• Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 25 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 1001-1014
• Author(s): John Briere; Kerri Johnson; Angela Bissada; Linda Damon; Julie Crouch; Eliana Gil; Rochelle Hanson; Vickie Ernst
• Date Published: August 2001
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Test/Measurement
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This article provides an overview of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) and reports on findings regarding its reliability and association with abuse exposure in a multisite validity study.

Abstract

The TSCYC (Briere, in press) is a 90-item caretaker-report measure that can be used to assess trauma symptoms in children ages 3 to 12. Caretakers rate each symptom on a four-point scale according to how often the symptom has occurred in the previous month. Unlike other parent/caretaker report measures, the TSCYC contains specific scales that ascertain the validity of caretaker reports; and it assesses a range of posttraumatic symptoms. In addition, upon completion of normative studies, the TSCYC will allow comparison of a particular child's caretaker-reported symptoms in a given area with a large, representative sample of caretaker reports from the general population. The TSCYC contains two reporter validity scales and eight clinical scales: Posttraumatic Stress-Intrusion (PTS-I); Posttraumatic Stress-Avoidance (PTS-AV); Posttraumatic Stress-Arousal (PTS-AR); Posttraumatic Stress-Total (PTS-TOT); Sexual Concerns (SC); Dissociation (DIS); Anxiety (ANX); Depression (DEP); and Anger/Aggression (ANG), as well as an item that assesses hours per week of caretaker contact with the child. The multisite validity study involved 219 TSCYC's administered by 6 clinician/researchers in multiple sites across the United States. The results were analyzed for scale reliability and association with several types of childhood maltreatment. The study found that the TSCYC clinical scales have good reliability and are associated with exposure to childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and witnessing domestic violence. The PTS-I, PTS-AV, PTS-AR, and PTS-TOT scales were most predictive, followed by SC in the case of sexual abuse and DIS in the case of physical abuse. There were a small number of age, sex, and race effects on instrument scores. Subject to continued validation and the development of general population norms, the use of the TSCYC as a clinical measure is supported by this study. 3 tables and 35 references