Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (PCL-5)

Objective: The posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Checklist is one of the most widely used screening tool in assessing PTSD symptomatology. Several changes to PTSD definition were made in the recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The aim of the study was to assess psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the revised version conforming to the advances in DSM-5. Method: Psychiatric outpatients with PTSD (n = 29) and major depressive disorder (n = 73) and a community group (n = 360) included in the study. Respondents completed the PCL-5, Trauma Symptom Checklist-40, Life Events Checklist for DSM-5, Dissociative Experiences Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory and Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory. Results: We found a four-factor solution best fit to the data providing support for the vast array of PTSD research. The PCL-5 demonstrated good reliability with composite reliability coefficients of re-experiencing (.79–.92), avoidance (.73–.91), negative alterations (.85–.90) and hyper-arousal (.81–.88) and temporal reliability with two-week test retest intra-correlation coefficients of .70, .64, .78, and .76, respectively. Strong associations of the total and sub-scale scores of the PCL-5 with other measures of trauma-related symptoms were indicative of construct validity of the screening tool. The current investigation suggested a cut-off score ≥47 for PTSD diagnosis, with .76 sensitivity and .69 specificity. Conclusion: The PCL-5 is a promising screening tool with sound psychometric properties.