Synthesis of the Psychometric Properties of the PTSD Checklist (PCL) Military, Civilian, and Specific Versions

By Kendall C. Wilkins, Ariel J. Lang, Sonya B. Norman. 2011

972 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The posttraumatic stress disorder checklist is a commonly used measure, with military (PCL‐M), civilian (PCL‐C), and specific trauma (PCL‐S) versions. This synthesis of the psychometric properties of all three versions found the PCL to be a well‐validated measure. The PCL shows good temporal stability, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and convergent validity. The majority of structural validity studies support four factor models. Little is available on discriminant validity and sensitivity to change. Strengths, limitations, and future research directions are discussed. Understanding the PCL's psychometric properties, strengths (e.g., items map on to DSM‐IV diagnostic criteria), and limitations (e.g., may overestimate PTSD prevalence) will help clinicians and researchers make educated decisions regarding the appropriate use of this measure in their particular setting. Depression and Anxiety, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

Citations in the corpus

The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5): Development and Initial Psychometric Evaluation. (2015, methodology): “Following an approach to evaluating construct validity proposed by Westen and Rosenthal (2003), a pattern of correlations was predicted based on available convergent and discriminant validity evidence (McDevitt-Murphy, Weathers, Adkins, & Daniels, 2005; Morey, 2007; Wilkins et al., 2011).”
Clinical reappraisal of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Screening Scales (CIDI-SC) in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS) (2013, methodology): “…1994) diagnoses based on the CIDI-SC (Kessler et al., 2005a; Kessler et al., 2007; Kessler et al., 2006a; Kessler et al., 2013a) and PCL (Wilkins et al., 2011) with diagnoses based on independent clinical reappraisal interviews has been reported in a number of studies, this does not…”
The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM–5 (CAPS-5): Development and Initial Psychometric Evaluation in Military Veterans (2017, methodology): “PCL-C scores have been extensively validated and have excellent psychometric properties (McDonald & Calhoun, 2010; Wilkins et al., 2011).”
Psychometric analysis of the PTSD Checklist-5 (PCL-5) among treatment-seeking military service members. (2016, background): “Although there is no reason to suspect poor performance in this area (e.g., the PCL-S showed adequate test-retest reliability, Wilkins et al., 2011), future studies should assess this characteristic of the PCL-5.”
Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (PCL-5) (2017, background): “[8] suggested that the measure (particularly PCL-Specific) has exhibited sound psychometric properties.”