Skip to main content
Log in

The Children's PTSD Inventory: Development and Reliability

  • Published:
Journal of Traumatic Stress

Abstract

Information involving the development of the DSM-IV version of the Children's PTSD Inventory is described. Independent ratings by highly experienced judges denote that the instrument encompassed the universe of definition that it was intended to measure (i.e., the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD). The instrument was administered to 82 traumatized and 22 nontraumatized youths at Bellevue Hospital. Moderate to high Cronbach alphas (.53–.89) were evident at the subtest level. An alpha of .95 was evident at the diagnostic level. In terms of inter-rater reliability, 98.1% agreement was evident at the diagnostic level. Inter-rater intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranged from .88 to .96 at the subtest level and .98 at the diagnostic level. Good to excellent kappas (.66–1.00) were reported for inter-rater reliability at the subtest level. An inter-rater reliability kappa of .96 was evident at the diagnostic level. In terms of test-retest reliability, 97.6% agreement was evident at the diagnostic level. Good to excellent test-retest kappas (.66–1.00) and ICCs (.66–.94) were observed. A test-retest kappa of .91 and an ICC of .88 was observed at the diagnostic level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education (1985). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angold, A., Prendergast, M., Cox, A., Harrington, R., Simonoff, E., & Rutter, M. (1995). The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA). Psychological Medicine, 25, 739–753.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anastasi, A. (1988). Psychological testing (6th ed.). New York: MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costello, E. J., Angold, A., March, J., & Fairbank, J. (1998). Life events and posttraumatic stress: The development of a new measure for children and adolescents. Psychological Medicine, 28, 1275–1288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronbach, L. J. ( 1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrica, 16, 297–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeVellis, R. F. ( 1991). Scale development: Theory and applications. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleiss, J. L. ( 1981). Statistical methods for rates and proportions (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, K.E. (November, 1996). Measuring school-aged children's PTSD: Preliminary psychometrics of four new measures. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, San Francisco, CA.

  • Heitz, A., & Saigh, P. A. ( 1994). The psychometric properties of the Children's PTSD Inventory among a sample of South-African females. Unpublished data.

  • Hollingshead, A. B. ( 1975). Four Factor Index of Social Status. New Haven, CT: Yale University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husain, S. A., Nair, J., Holcomb, W., Reid, J. C., Vagras, V., & Nair, S. S. (1998). Stress reactions of children and adolescents in war and siege conditions. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 1718–1719.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamphaus, R. W., & Frick, P. J. (1996). Clinical assessment of child and adolescent personality and behavior. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lonigan, C., Shannon, M., Finch, A., Daughtery, T., & Taylor, C. (1991). Children's reactions to a natural disaster: Symptom severity and degree of exposure. Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy, 13, 135–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J. (1999). Assessment of pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder. In P. A. Saigh & J. D. Bremner (Eds.), Posttraumatic stress disorder: A comprehensive text (pp. 199–218). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nader, K. O., Kriegler, J. A., Blake, D. D., Pynoos, R. S., Newman, E., & Weathers, F. W. (1996). Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents for (DSM-IV). National Center for PTSD, Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, E., McMackin, R. A., Morrissey, C., Erwin, B. A., Kaloupek, D. G., & Keane, T. M. (1998). PTSD among incarcerated male adolescents at secure juvenile treatment facilities. Unpublished raw data.

  • Nitko, A. (1983). Educational tests and measurements: An introduction. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne, D. A. (1974). The assessment of learning: Cognitive and affective. Lexington, MA: Heath & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reich, W., Leacock, N., & Shanfeld, C. (1994). Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents-Revised (DICA-R). St. Louis, MO: Washington University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saigh, P. A. (1988). Anxiety, depression, and assertion across alternating intervals of stress. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 338–341.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saigh, P. A. (1989a). The development and validation of the Children's Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Inventory. International Journal of Special Education, 4, 75–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saigh, P. A. (1989b). Fiabilte et validite de l'inventaire des troubles post-traumatiques (enfants). [The reliability and validity of the Children's Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Inventory] (French Edition). Comportement Humain: Psychologie, Education, Medecine, et Therapie Comportementales, 3, 29–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saigh, P. A. (1992). Structured clinical interviews and the inferential process. Journal of School Psychology, 30, 141–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saigh, P. A. (1998a). Children's PTSD Inventory (DSM-IV Version). Privately printed. New York, NY.

  • Saigh, P. A. (1998b). Test manual for the Children's PTSD Inventory (DSM-IV Version). Privately printed. New York, NY.

  • Saigh, P. A., Yasik, A., Sack, W., & Koplewicz, H. (1999). Child-adolescent posttraumatic stress disorder: Prevalence, comorbidity, and risk factors. In P. A. Saigh & J. D. Bremner (Eds.), Posttraumatic stress disorder: A comprehensive text (pp. 19–43). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel, J. M., & Vernberg, E. M. (1993). Task force report part 1: Children's psychological response to disaster. Journal of Child Clinical Psychology, 4, 464–484.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yasik, A. E., Saigh, P. A., Oberfield, R. A., Rubenstein, H., Halamandaris, P., Nester, J., Resko, J., Koplewicz, H., Inamdar, S., & McHugh, M. (1998, November). The reliability and validity of the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents-Revised PTSD module. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Conference, Washington, DC.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

About this article

Cite this article

Saigh, P.A., Yasik, A.E., Oberfield, R.A. et al. The Children's PTSD Inventory: Development and Reliability. J Trauma Stress 13, 369–380 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007750021626

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007750021626

Navigation