The Children's PTSD Inventory

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Test Critique

The Children's PTSD Inventory is a sophisticated interview composed of a series of open and closed questions. Appropriate administration requires that the examiner have a thorough knowledge of the onset and progression of PTSD because, once each question is asked as written, the examiner must follow-up with appropriate probes and inquiries to more fully describe the child's experience. Only examiners familiar with the assessment and treatment of PTSD will know how to respond to children's answers. Completion of the interview usually requires 15-20 minutes, but can take much less time for some children because the interview is discontinued at any point if the child's answers rule out a diagnosis of PTSD.

Special Considerations

The Children's PTSD Inventory was developed from the diagnostic criteria for PTSD in the DSM-IV-TR. Inventory items were written in language that could be easily understood by children. Then, to assess the phrasing and improve clarity, the test items were read aloud to 8-year-old children and their comments and level of understanding were noted.

Validity & Reliability

The reliability of the Children's PTSD Inventory has been described in two recent, peer-reviewed publications based on overlapping samples: 150 youth (109 of whom were stress-exposed) who had been seen at a large urban hospital or a private clinic in the Northeastern United States, and an additional 11 youth also seen at a private clinic. The manual essentially restates information from these two publications. Results are quite promising. The internal consistency reliability of the overall diagnosis based on the inventory was very strong (alpha = .95), and four of the five inventory sections showed adequate internal consisten...

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...No Diagnosis. The latter category is reserved for situations wherein the examiner has been advised by a referent or an objective source of information that an examinee was exposed to an extreme form of stress but the examinee fails to acknowledge it (Saigh, 1998).

References

Saigh, A, P,.(2010). Children's PTSD Inventory: A Structured Interview for Diagnosing

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder By:, Philip A, Vol. 17.Database: Mental Measurements

Yearbook.Retrieved on August 10, 2011 from Ebsco from http://web.ebscohost.com.

Saigh, P., Yaski, A.E., Oberfield, R.A., Green, B.L., Halamandaris, P.V., Rubenstein, H., Nester, J.,

Resko, J., Hetz, B., & McHugh, M. (2000). The Children's PTSD Inventory: Development and

reliability. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 30, 369-380.

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