Baker Lucas D, Dolezal Michael L, Goodson Jason T, Smith Andrew J
Department of Mental Health Service, George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
Psychol Trauma. 2025 May;17(4):840-847. doi: 10.1037/tra0001741. Epub 2024 Sep 5.
Police officers are at heightened risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to frequent exposure to traumatic stressors. Early identification of PTSD symptoms is crucial for timely intervention. However, stigma and low utilization of mental health services create barriers to accessing care, which can be improved through the use of accessible, brief, and efficient screening instruments. The Primary Care PTSD for PC-PTSD-5) scale is a brief, five-item self-report questionnaire demonstrating good reliability and validity in the identification of probable PTSD among veterans and civilians but has not yet been examined in first responder populations.
In this study, we assess the psychometric properties of an adapted version of the measure (PC-PTSD-5 [0-20]) in a sample of U.S. police officers ( = 394), focusing on reliability, structural validity, measurement invariance, and convergent and discriminant validity.
Internal consistency of the PC-PTSD-5 [0-20] was good (α = .87), with uniform item-total correlations ranging from .78 to .83. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a single-factor structure (comparative fit index = 0.97, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.94, root-mean-square error of approximation = 0.12 (90% CI [.08, .16]), standardized root-mean-square residual = 0.03) that was invariant between male and female officers, ²(9, = 394) = 2.72, = .974, and across years of service, ²(9, = 394) = 9.02, = .436, providing evidence of construct validity. The measure also demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity, showing varying degrees of correlational strength with 20 operational stressors, the strongest of which were with traumatic stressors ( = .52, < .001).
These findings suggest the PC-PTSD-5 [0-20] may be a valuable tool for identifying PTSD symptoms in police officers, benefiting both clinical and research applications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
由于经常接触创伤性应激源，警察患创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的风险更高。早期识别PTSD症状对于及时干预至关重要。然而，耻辱感和心理健康服务利用率低造成了获得护理的障碍，通过使用便捷、简短且有效的筛查工具可以改善这种情况。初级保健PTSD量表（PC-PTSD-5）是一份简短的五项自我报告问卷，在识别退伍军人和平民中可能患有PTSD的情况时显示出良好的信度和效度，但尚未在急救人员群体中进行检验。
在本研究中，我们在美国警察样本（n = 394）中评估了该量表改编版（PC-PTSD-5 [0-20]）的心理测量特性，重点关注信度、结构效度、测量不变性以及收敛效度和区分效度。
PC-PTSD-5 [0-20]的内部一致性良好（α = .87），项目与总分的相关性均匀，范围从.78到.83。验证性因素分析支持单因素结构（比较拟合指数 = 0.97，塔克-刘易斯指数 = 0.94，近似均方根误差 = 0.12（90% CI [.08, .16]），标准化残差均方根 = 0.03），该结构在男性和女性警察之间是不变的，χ²(9, n = 394) = 2.72, p = .974，并且在不同服务年限中也是不变的，χ²(9, n = 394) = 9.02, p = .436，提供了结构效度的证据。该量表还显示出收敛效度和区分效度，与20种工作压力源呈现出不同程度的相关强度，其中与创伤性压力源的相关性最强（r = .52, p < .001）。
这些发现表明PC-PTSD-5 [0-20]可能是识别警察PTSD症状的有价值工具，对临床和研究应用都有益处。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2025美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
