International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ): Psychometric properties of the Spanish-language Version in a Clinical Sample of Mexican Women

ABSTRACT

This study gathers evidence of the validity of a translated and Spanish-adapted version of the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) evaluating both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) in a clinical sample of Mexican women exposed to traumatic experiences. ITQ and a measure of traumatic events were administered to a purposive sample of 112 adult Mexican women attending an outpatient psychiatric service. The psychometric properties of the ITQ were evaluated according to the guidelines of the International Test Commission. The items were analyzed using G-theory, reliability analysis, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The instrument showed to have validity and reliability in this population, with adequate generalization and dependence coefficients (G theory), appropriate reliability indices, and a factorial structure congruent with the original theory. 55% of the participants classified with CPTSD and 14% with PTSD. The ITQ is a brief screening instrument that adequately distinguishes between PTSD and CPTSD in a clinical sample of Mexican women and may help make fundamental decisions in terms of treatment. Further analysis of the psychometric properties of this scale is recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Validation
• international trauma questionnaire
• complex post-traumatic stress disorder
• theory G
• confirmatory factor analysis
• Mexican women
• clinical population

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the support to carry out this research to the Clínica de Género y Sexualidad (Gender and Sexuality Clinic) of the Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, in particular to Dr. Lourdes García Fonseca, Dr. Alfredo Whaley and Dr. Beatriz Cerda de la O, who granted us the necessary facilities to carry out the field work, as well as to each women who participated in this study. Also, we thank the Doctorate program in Public Mental Health of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for the scholarship received by Verónica Suárez Valdovinos for the realization of this project.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation institutional and national and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz (CEI/C/055/2019).