A psychometric analysis of the Early Trauma Inventory-Short Form in Colombia: CTT and Rasch model.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Childhood trauma significantly increases risks for mental and physical health disorders.
• Accurate assessment of trauma is crucial for developing effective health prevention and promotion strategies, especially in data-limited regions like Colombia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the adapted Early Trauma Inventory self report-short form (ETI-SF) in a Colombian population.
• To strengthen evidence for the ETI-SF's score validity using Item Response Theory.
• To assess the factorial invariance of the ETI-SF across gender and education levels.

Main Methods:

• A web-based survey was administered to 1909 Colombian participants (aged 18-72).
• Item Response Theory and factorial invariance analyses were employed.
• Reliability and calibration of individual items and subscales were assessed.

Main Results:

• The ETI-SF demonstrated good overall reliability (α=0.81, ω=0.60) and strong reliability for emotional, physical, and sexual trauma subscales.
• General trauma subscale showed lower reliability (α=0.56, ω=0.37).
• Factorial invariance analysis indicated potential gender and educational differences.

Conclusions:

• The study confirms high prevalence of childhood traumatic experiences in Colombia.
• The ETI-SF is a useful tool for public health assessment in Colombia.
• Further research should explore diverse methods for scale quality estimation.