A Preliminary Study Examining The Validity Of Brief Trauma Screening Tools For Young Adolescents In School-Based Health Centers

Background and Purpose: There are very limited brief, validated, open access screening tools for trauma symptoms in adolescent populations. This study aimed to test two brief tools used with adults in primary care settings for use with adolescents. Methods: Youth (n = 77) completed the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist (PCLC-2), the Primary Care PTSD Screen for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; PC-PTSD), and the PTSD Reaction Index for DSM-5 (reference tool). Sensitivities and specificities were analyzed. Results: The PCLC-2 and PC-PTSD demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity with adolescents when using lower cutoff scores than those recommended for adults. Conclusions: The PC-PTSD and PCLC-2 have the potential to be used as brief screens with adolescents. Additional research is needed to further examine their validity with larger, diverse youth samples in primary care and school-based settings.