Crafting a Novel Measure: Examining Youth Trauma Exposure and Developmental Trauma Disorder

Before the introduction of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published in 2013, the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were under specific inquiry prior to its publication (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000; APA, 2013; van der Kolk, 2005). The current diagnosis of PTSD in the DSM-5 addressed many of the concerns raised by the DSM-IV TR; still, problems remain, particularly in regard to the diagnosis for children and adolescents (APA, 2000; APA, 2013; Gold, Marx, Soler-Baillo, & Sloan, 2005; Kerig & Bennett, 2012; Pynoos et al., 2009; Scheeringa, Myers, Putnam & Zeanah, 2012). Specifically, many stressful childhood experiences may not qualify as traumatic in the DSM-5, and thus, erroneous diagnoses or under-diagnosis may result. Evidence-based trauma exposure measures are keyed to the DSM and may underidentify events that youth may consider traumatic; thus, there is a need for the development of a new measure to capture these experiences. In response to criticisms of the PTSD diagnosis for children within the DSM, a new diagnosis, with a unique pattern of symptoms, was proposed- "developmental trauma disorder" (DTD; van der Kolk, 2005). Given the limited work on DTD, the present study examined the utility of a new measure to assess for potentially traumatic events and its relation to symptoms of DTD.