Psychometric utility of the childhood trauma questionnaire with female street-based sex workers.

The present study examines the psychometric properties of a verbal, face-to-face administration of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) with female street-based sex workers (N = 171). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated a poor fit between our data and the instrument's established 5-factor structure. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) yielded four stable and usable factors corresponding to the Emotional Abuse, Emotional Neglect, Physical Abuse, and Sexual Abuse subscales of the CTQ; the Physical Neglect subscale did not emerge as a stable factor. Cross loading of many CTQ items onto more than one factor most likely produced the poor CFA fit, and indicated that abuse/neglect constructs were not conceptually distinct for our sample. Mean trauma scores did not differ significantly from published scores for female substance abusers. According to the CTQ Minimization/Denial scale, 42% of participants minimized their childhood maltreatment experiences. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods may be optimal for the acquisition of sensitive trauma information with wary and vulnerable street populations.