The PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version: Reliability, Validity, and Factor Structure in a Nonclinical Sample

• Published in: Journal of clinical psychology Vol. 68; no. 6; pp. 699 - 713
• Main Authors: Conybeare, Daniel, Behar, Evelyn, Solomon, Ari, Newman, Michelle G., Borkovec, T. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2012; Wiley; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Assessment; Biological and medical sciences; Checklist - standards; Checklist - statistics & numerical data; Clinical psychology; College students; Comparative analysis; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Post traumatic stress disorder; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics - instrumentation; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; PTSD; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Trauma; Young Adult; United States > US; Human; PTSD; Evaluation; Factor analysis; Questionnaire; Healthy subject; Anxiety disorder; Assessment; Psychometrics; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Trauma; Stress
• ISSN: 0021-9762; 1097-4679; 1097-4679
• DOI: 10.1002/jclp.21845

Objectives We examined the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the posttraumatic stress diorder (PTSD) Checklist‐Civilian Version (PCL‐C; Blanchard, Jones‐Alexander, Buckley, & Forneris, 1996) among unselected undergraduate students. Participants Participants were 471 undergraduate students at a large university in the Eastern United States and were not preselected based on trauma history or symptom severity. Results The PCL‐C demonstrated good internal consistency and retest reliability. Compared with alternative measures of PTSD, the PCL‐C showed favorable patterns of convergent and discriminant validity. In contrast to previous research using samples with known trauma exposure, we found support for both 1‐factor and 2‐factor models of PTSD symptoms. Conclusions Overall, the PCL‐C appears to be a valid and reliable measure of PTSD symptoms, even among nonclinical samples, and is superior to some alternative measures of PTSD. The factor structure among nonclinical samples may not reflect each of the PTSD symptom “clusters” (i.e., reexperiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hyperarousal). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Clin. Psychol. 00:1–15, 2012.