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NDACAN Measure Details

Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC)

Description:

The Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC; Briere et al. 2001) is a standardized and normed trauma measure for children ages 3 to 12 who have been exposed to traumatic events, such as child abuse, peer assault, or community violence. This instrument includes 90 items in three age-specific questionnaires (ages 3–4, 5–9, and 10–12). Focal children’s primary caregivers rate each symptom on a 1-to-4 scale according to how frequently the symptom occurred in the previous month. The instrument also contains two scales that assess the validity of the primary caregiver’s responses. Clinical scales (anxiety, depression, anger/aggression, post-traumatic stress-intrusion, post-traumatic stress-avoidance, post-traumatic stress-arousal, dissociation, and sexual concerns) and a summary scale provide information about symptoms. Each questionnaire takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Questionnaires are written at a 6th-grade reading level and are available in Spanish and other languages. The authors report alpha coefficients ranging from 0.78 to 0.92 and test-retest reliabilities of 0.68 to 0.96. The authors report evidence of good discriminant validity and extensive convergent validity. Further studies have reported evidence of good sensitivity and specificity, discriminant validity, extensive convergent validity, and minimal concurrent validity (Lanktree et al. 2008; Wherry et al. 2008). The TSCYC was standardized on a sample of 750 children from across the United States, with roughly equal numbers in each age level. Demographics closely matched those of the general population.

Citations

Briere, J., Johnson, K., Bissada, A., Damon, L., Crouch, J., Gil, E., Hanson, R., & Ernst, V. (2001). The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC): reliability and association with abuse exposure in a multi-site study. Child Abuse & Neglect1001-1014. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0145-2134(01)00253-8

Lanktree, C., Gilbert, A., Briere, J., Taylor, N., Chen, K., Maida, C., & Saltzman, W. (2008). Multi-informant assessment of maltreated children: convergent and discriminant validity of the TSCC and TSCYC. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32(6), 621-625. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.10.003