OBJECTIVE:

To assess the psychometric properties of the Child Stress Disorders Checklist (CSDC), a 36-item observer-report instrument that measures acute stress and posttraumatic symptoms in children.

METHOD:

The CSDC was administered to parents of 43 children with acute burns and 41 children who had experienced a traffic crash. This instrument was also administered to the burned children's primary nurse to estimate interrater reliability. The CSDC was completed again by parents of burned children, 2 days and 3 months later. Convergent validity was determined by correlating scores on the CSDC with scores on instruments of known validity for assessing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children. Concurrent validity was determined through an examination of the relationship between CSDC scores and an index of trauma severity (percentage of body surface area burned). Discriminant validity was assessed by administering the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL): it was hypothesized that PTSD symptoms would be more closely related to the PTSD scale of the CBCL than the Thought Problems scale of the CBCL.

RESULTS:

The CSDC has reliable and valid psychometric properties.

CONCLUSIONS:

The CSDC, an observer-report instrument of ASD and PTSD in children, has important utility in clinical and research settings.