Abstract
Background In Japan, the number of child maltreatment reports has surged to almost ten folds during the last decade. Assessment tools which are concise and easy-to-use are called for, in order to facilitate the process of child maltreatment substantiation as well as to advance research on Japanese people. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF) is accepted internationally as an instrument to assess and quantify experiences of childhood maltreatment and its impact. However, the Japanese version of CTQ-SF has not been validated. The present study examined validity of the Japanese version of the CTQ (CTQ-J). Methods The CTQ-J was administered to Japanese adolescents institutionalized due to child maltreatment and other family issues (institutionalized group, n=31) and adolescents who had no experience of institutionalization (community group, n=46) from the greater Tokyo area. Analysis of Variance was conducted to compare CTQ-J scores among the institutionalized group with documented maltreatment, the institutionalized group without documented maltreatment, and the community group, for the total score and five subscale scores. Then the discrimination of scores assessed by the CTQ-J were calculated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and compared with documented childhood maltreatment experiences from institutionalized adolescents. Results Internal consistency was ‘good’ to ‘acceptable’ for the CTQ-J in the categories of emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional neglect (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.74). In each maltreatment type, the institutionalized group with documented maltreatment experiences showed significantly higher CTQ-J scores than the community group. The area under the curve (AUC) showed higher discrimination for the total score of the CTQ-J (0.95, 95% confidence interval: 0.90-0.99), and each type of child maltreatment (all AUC: 0.98-0.86). Conclusion This study has demonstrated that the CTQ-J may be used as a reliable tool for childhood maltreatment experience assessment among Japanese adolescents. It is suggested that the CTQ-J has validity by predicting child maltreatment experiences documented in the child welfare records.
Personality and substance use in Japanese adolescents: The Japanese version of Substance Use Risk Profile Scale