The German Version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) - Psychometric Characteristics in a Representative Sample of the General Population

The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) has become internationally accepted as an assessment of traumatic childhood experiences. The short version assesses aspects of childhood abuse and neglect. In order to check the psychometric properties of the German short form, the CTQ was used within a representative sample of the German population (N=2500). The five factor structure of the original version showed only a sufficient model fit, because of high intercorrelations and weak internal consistency of the scale physical neglect. The internal consistency of the other subscales was high with alpha >= 0.80. Construct validity was supported by positive correlations with measures of anxiety/depression and negative correlations with life satisfaction. The German short form of the CTQ is a reliable and valid self rating instrument to assess childhood maltreatment retrospectively. The subscale physical neglect should be applied with caution.