Abstract

Background:

The study examined the psychometric properties of the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screen 2 (CATS-2) as a measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to DSM-5 and (Complex) PTSD following the ICD-11 criteria in children and adolescents (7–17 years).

Methods:

Psychometric properties were investigated in an international sample of traumatized children and adolescents (N = 283) and their caregivers (N = 255). We examined the internal consistency (α), convergent and discriminant validity, the factor structure of the CATS-2 total scores, latent classes of PTSD/Complex PTSD (CPTSD) discrimination, as well as the diagnostic utility using ROC-curves.

Results:

The DSM-5 total score (self: α = .89; caregiver: α = .91), the ICD-11 PTSD total score (self: α = .67; caregiver: α = .79) and the ICD-11 CPTSD total score (self: α = .83; caregiver: α = .87) have proven acceptable to excellent reliability. The latent structure of the 12-item ICD-11 PTSD/CPTSD construct was consistent with prior findings. Latent profile analyses revealed that ICD-11 CPTSD was empirically distinguishable from ICD-11 PTSD using the CATS-2. ROC-analysis using the CAPS-CA-5 as outcome revealed that CATS-2 DSM-5 PTSD scores of ≥21 (screening) to ≥25 (diagnostic) were optimally efficient for detecting probable DSM-5 PTSD diagnosis. For the ICD-11 PTSD scale scores of ≥7 (screening) to ≥9 (diagnostic) were optimally efficient for detecting probable DSM-5 PTSD diagnosis.

Conclusions:

The CATS-2 is a brief, reliable and valid measure of DSM-5 PTSD, ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD symptomatology in traumatized children and adolescents, allowing crosswalk between diagnostic systems using one measure.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • The CATS-2 screens for potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and PTSD symptoms.

  • The CATS-2 captures DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria for PTSD and CPTSD and enables clinicians and researchers to crosswalk between both diagnostic systems.

  • International validation has proven good psychometric properties and presents cut-off scores

  • The CATS-2 is a license-free instrument and is freely accessible.

Details

Title
The child and Adolescent Trauma Screen 2 (CATS-2) – validation of an instrument to measure DSM-5 and ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD in children and adolescents
Author
Sachser, Cedric 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Berliner, Lucy 2 ; Risch, Elizabeth 3 ; Rosner, Rita 4 ; Birkeland, Marianne S 5 ; Eilers, Rebekka 4 ; Hafstad, Gertrud S 5 ; Pfeiffer, Elisa 1 ; Plener, Paul L 6 ; Jensen, Tine K 7 

1  Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany 
2  Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 
3  Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OH, USA 
4  Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany 
5  Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway 
6  Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria 
7  Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo Norway 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Dec 2022
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
e-ISSN
20008066
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105580
ProQuest document ID
2756861636
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons  Attribution – Non-Commercial License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.