Factorial validity of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire in men and women

In an effort to confirm the factorial validity of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) across sex, the items from the CTQ for 916 university students were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. Results indicated that the factor structure for the CTQ was significantly different for men and women. For women, the items from the Physical Abuse subscale did not create a stable factor and thus appear not to be conceptually valid. Conversely, for men, the five-factor model provided a relatively good fit to the data. This investigation provides important information regarding sex differences in the factorial validity of the CTQ. Implications and future research directions are discussed.