A psychometric evaluation of the parent version of the children's revised impact of event scale (CRIES): screening for post-traumatic stress disorder in Dutch children aged 3 to 7 years.

BACKGROUND: For the prevention and reduction of potentially harmful effects of childhood trauma, systematic screening for PTSD is a useful first step. Recently, the parent-reported versions of the widely used Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-P13/8) were evaluated with promising results in children aged 8-18 years. The present study psychometrically evaluated these tools as screeners for PTSD in 96 very young children (3-7 years) in the Netherlands.

METHODS: In addition to the CRIES-P13/8, the Diagnostic Infant and Preschool Assessment (DIPA) was administered to the parents of children exposed to trauma. Psychometric evaluation of the CRIES-P13/8 comprised structural validity, reliability, and criterion validity.

RESULTS: The bi-factor confirmatory factor analyses yielded generally poor fit, unidimensionality was established (≥ 0.87), internal consistency was sufficient (≥ 0.85). The demonstrated screening characteristics show that the CRIES-P13/8 differentiates reliably between children with and without (sub-threshold) PTSD as assessed by the Diagnostic Infant and Preschool Assessment (DIPA).

CONCLUSIONS: The CRIES-P13/8 are adequate screeners, also in young children. In addition to the small number of items, this makes the CRIES-P13/8 a practical screener in the clinical and research setting. For each version, three cut-off scores are suggested, for full PTSD as well as subthreshold PTSD.