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Dissociative Identity Disorder

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Developing Neuroimaging Phenotypes of the Default Mode Network in PTSD: Integrating the Resting State, Working Memory, and Structural Connectivity

Developing Neuroimaging Phenotypes of the Default Mode Network in PTSD: Integrating the Resting State, Working Memory, and Structural Connectivity

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Assessing posttraumatic stress disorder with or without reference to a single, worst traumatic event: examining

Jon D Elhai¹, Ryan M Engdahl, Patrick A Palmieri

¹Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606-3390, USA. jonelhai@gmail.com

Psychological Assessment

|December 2, 2009

Summary

The way Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms are assessed impacts the checklist

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Psychiatry
Clinical Psychology

Background:

The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist (PCL) is a widely used self-report measure for assessing PTSD symptoms.
The factor structure of the PCL may be influenced by how participants are instructed to rate their symptoms, specifically whether they focus on a single traumatic event or their overall trauma history.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of methodological manipulation on the factor structure of the PTSD Checklist.
To determine if instructing participants to reference a single worst traumatic event versus their overall trauma history influences the PCL's factor structure.

Main Methods:

Nonclinical participants were randomly assigned to either a trauma-specific (n=218) or trauma-general (n=234) assessment condition.
A third group of non-trauma-exposed participants (n=464) served as a control.
Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance testing were employed to analyze the data.

Main Results:

The 4-factor model by King et al. (1998) showed the best fit for trauma-general and non-trauma-exposed groups.
The 4-factor model by Simms et al. (2002) demonstrated the best fit for the trauma-specific group.
Non-trauma-exposed participants differed from trauma-exposed groups in factor structure, but the two trauma groups did not differ significantly from each other.

Conclusions:

The instructions given during PTSD Checklist administration can influence its factor structure.
Different PTSD assessment instructions may align better with different underlying factor models.
The findings have implications for the interpretation and application of PTSD Checklist results in research and clinical practice.