Validation of the Korean Version of the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 among Psychiatric Outpatients

Park, Jin; Kim, Daeho; Kim, Eunkyung; Kim, Seokhyun; Yun, Mirim

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Effects of multiple trauma are complex and extend beyond core PTSD symptoms. However, few psychological instruments for trauma assessment address this issue of symptom complexity. The Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40) is a self-report scale that assesses wide range of symptoms associated with childhood or adult traumatic experience. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the validity of the Korean Version of the TSC-40 in a sample of psychiatric outpatients.
METHODS
Data of 367 treatment-seeking patients with DSM-IV diagnoses were obtained from an outpatient department of psychiatric unit at a university hospital. The diagnoses were anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive disorder, adjustment disorder and others. Included in the psychometric data were the TSC-40, the Life events checklist, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the Zung's Self-report Depression Scale, and the Zung's Self-report Anxiety Scale. Cronbach's Î± for internal consistency were calculated. Convergent and concurrent validity was approached with correlation between the TSC-40 and other scales (PTSD, anxiety and depression).
RESULTS
Exploratory factor analysis of the Korean Version of TSC-40 extracted seven-factor structure accounted for 59.55% of total variance that was contextually similar to a six-factor structure and five-factor structure of the original English version. The Korean Version of TSC-40 demonstrated a high level of internal consistency. (Cronbach's Î±=0.94) and good concurrent and convergent validity with another PTSD scale and anxiety and depression scales.
CONCLUSIONS
Excellent construct validity of The Korean Version of TSC-40 was proved in this study. And subtle difference in the factor structure may reflect the cultural issues and the sample characteristics such as heterogeneous clinical population (including non-trauma related disorders) and outpatient status. Overall, this study TSCdemonstrated that the Korean version of TSC-40 is psychometrically sound and can be used for Korean clinical population.