Measurement invariance of six language versions of the post-traumatic stress disorder checklist for DSM-5 in civilians after traumatic brain injury

Journal article

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is frequently associated with neuropsychiatric impairments such as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can be screened using self-report instruments such as the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). The current study aims to inspect the factorial validity and cross-linguistic equivalence of the PCL-5 in individuals after TBI with differential severity. Data for six language groups (n ≥ 200; Dutch, English, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish) were extracted from the CENTER-TBI study database. Factorial validity of PTSD was evaluated using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), and compared between four concurrent structural models. A multi-group CFA approach was utilized to investigate the measurement invariance (MI) of the PCL-5 across languages. All structural models showed satisfactory goodness-of-fit with small between-model variation. The original DSM-5 model for PTSD provided solid evidence of MI across the language groups. The current study underlines the validity of the clinical DSM-5 conceptualization of PTSD and demonstrates the comparability of PCL-5 symptom scores between language versions in individuals after TBI. Future studies should apply MI methods to other sociodemographic (e.g., age, gender) and injury-related (e.g., TBI severity) characteristics to improve the monitoring and clinical care of individuals suffering from PTSD symptoms after TBI.publishedVersio

Authors: Bockhop, F; Zeldovich, M; Cunitz, K; Van Praag, D; van der Vlegel, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 16571-16571
• Article number: 16571
• Publication date: 2022-10-04
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-20170-2
• EISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• Language: English
• Keywords: Structural equation modeling; Medical emergency; Psychology; Confirmatory factor analysis; Checklist; Traumatic brain injury; Norwegian; Equivalence (formal languages); Medicine; Poison control; Conceptualization; Measurement invariance; Traumatic stress; Clinical psychology; Psychiatry