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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness and most powerful selection of predictors of an early screening tool for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of 87 children ages 2 to 6 years after unintentional injury.
METHODS: The examined screener was administered within 6 to 13 days post accident and consisted of an adapted version of the Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS), the PEDS-ES (PEDS Early Screener), and questions on 5 additional risk factors (preexisting child behavioral problems, parental preexisting chronic mental or physical illness, pretraumatic life events in the family, parental feelings of guilt, parental posttraumatic stress). The PTSD Semi-structured Interview and Observational Record for Infants and Young Children served as criterion measure 6 months after the accident. A case was deemed positive when meeting criteria for full or partial PTSD.
RESULTS: Use of the PEDS-ES without the additional risk factors performed best, with good sensitivity (85%) and moderate specificity (63%) for full or partial PTSD.
CONCLUSIONS: The PEDS-ES allows for successful early screening of preschool-aged children after single accidental trauma. It may be used within a stepped-care model for early identification of individuals designated for possible secondary preventative interventions.
- AUC —
- area under the curve
- CI —
- confidence interval
- CTSQ —
- Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire
- NPV —
- negative predictive value
- PEDS —
- Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale
- PPV —
- positive predictive value
- PTSD —
- posttraumatic stress disorder
- PTSDSSI —
- PTSD Semi-structured Interview and Observational Record for Infants and Young Children
- ROC —
- receiver operating characteristic
- STEPP —
- Screening Tool for Early Predictors of PTSD
- STEPP-AUS —
- Australian Version of the Screening Tool for Early Predictors of PTSD
- Accepted July 19, 2013.
- Copyright © 2013 by the American Academy of Pediatrics
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