The child behavior checklist PTSD scale: screening for PTSD in young children with high exposure to trauma

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the validity of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) subscale to screen for PTSD in children attending an inner-city early childhood mental health center. Using various measures, we assessed 51 preschool-age children with high exposure to trauma receiving outpatient child-parent psychotherapy for PTSD. We compared 15 items on the CBCL, a proposed subscale indicative of PTSD, to the UCLA-PTSD Index and to clinical diagnosis based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (rev. ed.; DC:0-3; Zero to Three, 2005). Using the DC:0-3 criteria, 24% of the children were diagnosed with PTSD, but only 4% using the DSM-IV. The CBCL-PTSD subscale did not reach significant sensitivity or specificity to be a valuable screening tool for PTSD in this population.