Psychometric properties of the Children’sRevised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES-8) used for PTSD screening in studies with unaccompanied refugee minors

Sammanfattning: Background: Unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) report increased levels of mental health problems, specifically symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are very common. They have often experienced multiple trauma events and additional stressors related to migration, acculturation and family separation. High-quality measurements of PTSD symptoms that are brief and easy to administer among URM are therefore needed. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Children’s Revised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES-8) when used in a population of URM. Method: Confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency and test-retest agreement were analyzed using data from two previous studies; one Norwegian longitudinal study of URM mental health including 284 participants and 104 participants from a Swedish intervention study. Results: CRIES-8 in this population showed questionable levels of internal consistency and moderate test-retest agreement. The two-factor model of Intrusion and Avoidance was confirmed to have god model fit in this study, while the one-factor model of PTSD had poor model fit. Three items related to Avoidance (2,5 & 8) were found to have a large proportion of error in the one factor model. Conclusion: When CRIES-8 are used in studies of PTSD among URM the reliability and validity seems lower than previously found in other contexts. Especially the items related to avoidance seem potentially problematic in this context. It is recommended that researchers and clinicians are cautious when interpreting CRIES-8 scores when used with URM.