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2006123 
Journal Article 
The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC): reliability and association with abuse exposure in a multi-site study 
Briere, J; Johnson, K; Bissada, A; Damon, L; Crouch, J; Gil, E; Hanson, R; Ernst, V 
2001 
Yes 
Child Abuse and Neglect
ISSN: 0145-2134 
25 
8 
1001-1014 
English 
11601594 
OBJECTIVE: The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) is a 90-item caretaker-report measure of children's trauma- and abuse-related symptomatology. It contains two reporter validity scales and eight clinical scales [Post-traumatic Stress-Intrusion (PTS-I), Post-traumatic Stress-Avoidance (PTS-AV), Post-traumatic Stress-Arousal (PTS-AR), Post-traumatic Stress-Total (PTS-TOT), Sexual Concerns (SC), Dissociation (DIS), Anxiety (ANX), Depression (DEP), and Anger/Aggression (ANG)], as well as an item assessing hours per week of caretaker contact with the child. This paper introduces the TSCYC and describes its psychometric properties in a multisite validity study.

METHOD: A total of 219 TSCYCs administered by six clinician/researchers across the United States were analyzed for scale reliability and association with several types of childhood maltreatment.

RESULTS: The TSCYC clinical scales have good reliability and are associated with exposure to childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and witnessing domestic violence. The PTS-I, PTS-AV, PTS-AR, and PTS-TOT scales were most predictive, followed by SC in the case of sexual abuse and DIS in the case of physical abuse. There were a small number of age, sex, and race effects on TSCYC scores.

CONCLUSIONS: The TSCYC appears to have reasonable psychometric characteristics, and correlates as expected with various types of trauma exposure. Subject to continued validation and the development of general population norms, its use as a clinical measure is supported.