Post Traumatic Reactions as Individual Differences: Latent Structure Analysis of the International Trauma Questionnaire in Italian Trauma-Exposed and Non-Trauma Exposed Adults

• Main Authors: Antonella Somma, Cesare Maffei, Serena Borroni, Giulia Gialdi, Andrea Fossati
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Messina 2019-04-01
• Series: Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology
• Online Access: http://cab.unime.it/journals/index.php/MJCP/article/view/2058

To evaluate the internal consistency and factor structure of the Italian translation of the 12-item International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ), 382 trauma-exposed and 366 non-trauma exposed Italian community-dwelling Italian adults from a total group of 748 volunteers completed the ITQ. The ITQ Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Disorder of Self-Organization scales showed adequate Cronbach’s as in both trauma-exposed and non-trauma-exposed participants. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the a priori model of item-to-scale assignment of the ITQ items was consistently reproduced in both trauma-exposed and non-trauma-exposed participants, even when measurement invariance was formally assessed. Finally, taxometric analyses showed that the latent distribution of the six ITQ PTSD symptom items should be conceived as a latent dimension rather than a categorical latent construct. As a whole, our findings supported to the cross-cultural validity of the ITQ while extending its clinical usefulness.