Validation of childhood trauma questionnaire-short form in Japanese clinical and nonclinical adults

Abstract

Childhood trauma is any traumatic experience that occurs before the age of 18. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) is a popular questionnaire for childhood trauma. The present study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Japanese translated version of CTQ-SF (CTQ-JNIMH) in Japanese adults. The present study included two types of participants: nonclinical ( n ​= ​762) and clinical ( n ​= ​111). Most of the clinical participants were diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. A two-wave online survey was conducted with the nonclinical participants, and a face-to-face cross-sectional survey was conducted with the clinical participants. As a result, confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the factor structure of the CTQ-JNIMH in this study was identical to that of the original. Each subscale had an acceptable level of internal consistency and test-retest reliability, except for physical neglect. Convergent validity was confirmed for all the subscales of CTQ-JNIMH. The scores of clinical participants were significantly higher than those of nonclinical participants in all subscales of the CTQ-JNIMH; substantial differences were found in emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse based on the effect sizes. These findings supported the reliability and validity of the CTQ-JNIMH in both clinical and nonclinical Japanese adults. • The factor structure was identical to the original. • Acceptable levels of reliability and validity were confirmed.