Confusing Conversations: Assessing Traumatic Stress in Young Children

Early detection and interventions are important for the prevention of negative long-term effects of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Current evaluations of PTSD in young children rely heavily on caregiver reports, and there are few self-report measures for children under 8 years old (Mash & Barkley, 2007). This study examined the construct validity of the Post Traumatic Symptom Inventory for Children (PT-SIC), a self-report measure of PTSD symptomatology for young children, through a comparison of results with the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC), an empirically supported caregiver measure of child PTSD symptomatology. Results of the Spearman correlation indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between child reports of arousal symptoms and caregiver reports, (rs(2) = .518, p \u3c .01). However, limitations of the current study increased the risk of error and decreased the generalizability of the results. Suggestions for future research are discussed