2015 · Study · English

Familial risk and protective factors in alcohol intoxicated adolescents: psychometric evaluation of the family domain of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTC) and a new short version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ)

Kuttler, H., Schwendemann, H., & Bitzer, E. M.

Kuttler, H., Schwendemann, H., & Bitzer, E. M. (2015). Familial risk and protective factors in alcohol intoxicated adolescents: psychometric evaluation of the family domain of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTC) and a new short version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). BMC Pediatrics, 15(1), Article 191. doi.org/10.1186/s12887-015-0471-z

Summary

German psychometric study testing whether the family scales of the Communities That Care Youth Survey work in a clinical setting: adolescents admitted to hospital with acute alcohol intoxication, a target group for brief family-based counselling. Seven CTC family scales (four risk factors – family conflict, poor family management, parental attitudes favourable to drug use and to antisocial behaviour – and three protective factors – family attachment, opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement) and a new six-item scale drawn from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-6) were administered to 342 patients aged 13–17. Three of the seven CTC scales performed poorly on descriptive item analysis; a five-factor confirmatory model fitted the remaining scales best (CTC-F5). Both CTC-F5 and CTQ-6 showed acceptable fit (TLI and CFI > 0.97, RMSEA < 0.05) and acceptable to good internal consistency (α > 0.7), robust to alternative estimation methods. The study extends CTC measures from population surveys to a vulnerable clinical group in Germany.