National Institute for Health and Care Research

Measure

Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire-Child (PTQ-C)

Age range 8 — 18
Completion time 10 minutes
Respondent Self Report
Problem areas
Anxiety Mood Problems

Overview

The PTQ-C is adapted from the adult version (PTQ: Ehring et al., 2011). Wording of five of the 15 items were changed to enhance comprehension in children. Although treated primarily as a undimensional measure. The PTQ-C has three subscales. Core features (N=9 Items 1,2,3,6,7,8,11,12 & 13); Unproductiveness of RNT (N=3 Items 4,9 & 14); Mental capacity (N=3 Items 5,10 & 15). Available languages include English (Bijttebier et al., 2015) and Spanish (Ruiz et al., 2019).

Scoring & Interpretation

Participants are asked how they typically think about negative experiences or problems and rate the extent to which each of the 15 statement applies to them when they think about negative experiences or problems. Each item uses a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (never) to 4 (almost always). Items are summed to provide a total score (0-60)

Psychometric Properties

Internal Consistency

Multiple research has found internal consistency reliability to be good with ⍺ = .92 (Bijttebier et al., 2018) α = .95 (Bijttebier et al., (2015) α = .94 (Hitchcock et al., 2022) ⍺ = .93 (Ruiz et al., 2019).

Test-Retest Reliability

Factor Structure

Factor structure in the original development work in a community sample suggested a one-factor structure (Bijttebier et al., 2015). This was supported in later validation work in both a community (Bijttebier et al., 2018) and clinical sample (Hitchcock et al., 2022). Bifactor modelling including a general factor and three subscales suggests the individual subscale are unlikely to account for substantially greater variance above and beyond the general factor of perseverative thinking (Ruiz et al., 2019; Hitchcock et al., 2022). Model fit was pooer in the clinical sample (Hitchcock et al., 2022). 

Validity

Convergent validity demonstrated in both community (Bijttebier et al., 2015; 2018; Ruiz et al., 2019) and clinical sample (Hitchcock et al., 2022). Divergent validity demonstrated in both community (Bijttebier et al., 2015) and clinical sample (Hitchcock et al., 2022).

Measurement Invariance

Ruiz et al., (2019) found support for measurement invariance across gender and two age groups (8-12 years and 13-18 years) in a Spanish speaking Columbian community sample.

Access

English version: contact author (Bijttebier et al., (2015) Spanish version available in appendices of paper (Ruiz et al., 2019). Contact author for confirmation of use.
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