Brief Description
The Pediatric Trauma Stress Screening Tool is a 15-item questionnaire designed to assess traumatic stress symptoms in children and teens. It includes questions that screen for exposure to traumatic events, as well as symptoms like sleep disturbances, intrusive thoughts, and mood changes (e.g., How much of the time during the past month did the respondent have upsetting thoughts, pictures, or sounds of what happened come into their mind when they don't want them to?). Responses are rated on a scale of “none” to “most.” This tool is particularly useful for pediatricians and mental health professionals who want to identify children at risk of developing PTSD or other trauma-related issues. The tool also helps guide the next steps in care, from providing psychoeducational support to recommending trauma-informed therapy.
Assessment Administration Type
Child/Adolescent Self-Report
Number of questions
15
Age Range for Administration
11-17
Recommended Frequency of Administration
Monthly
Summary of Scoring and Interpretations
Items are rated on a scale of 0 (“None”) to 4 (“Most”). Scoring the Pediatric Trauma Stress Screening Tool involves adding up the responses to items 3–14 (on the Blueprint version), with scores ranging from 0 to 48. Score interpretations are divided into three levels using the following table:
Score | Interpretation | Recommended Next Steps |
0-10 | Mild risk | The child may only need ongoing monitoring and supportive guidance from their primary care provider |
11-20 | Moderate risk | Suggests a need for a brief in-office intervention and possibly a referral to a therapist. |
21-48 | Severe risk | In addition to a brief in-office intervention, the child should be referred to a therapist who specializes in trauma treatments, along with creating a safety plan if necessary. |
The Pediatric Trauma Stress Screening Tool groups its items into three categories:
Symptom Category | Item Number (on Blueprint) |
Sleep problems | 3, 4 |
Hypervigilant/Intrusive symptoms | 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
Avoidance/Negative mood | 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 |
If sleep problems are marked as occurring "much" or "most" of the time on items 1 and 2, it is usually recommended to first focus on a brief intervention addressing sleep difficulties. Afterward, attention can shift to hypervigilant/intrusive symptoms, even if other symptom areas, like avoidance or mood, are also significantly elevated.
Blueprint Adjustments
The original measure is divided into two sections, where the first two items are not numbered. The Blueprint platform requires all items to be numbered; therefore, the original measure shows the initial questions asking about the presence of trauma in the child’s life plus 13 questions. Blueprint’s measure shows 15 items as they have all been combined.
The original measure shows a visual representation on a calendar above the available responses to show a description of each frequency. Blueprint cannot include this visual representation on our platform. The visual representations appear as follows:
None - 0 days per month
Little - 2 days per month
Some - 7 days per month
Much - 11 days per month
Most - 24 days per month
Clinical Considerations
Estimated time for completion: 3-6 minutes
The PTSST is meant to enhance clinical decision-making and be part of the treatment planning and assessment process. It should not serve as the sole basis for making a diagnosis.
If additional assessment of suicide risk and response is indicated on item 15, the PTSST authors recommend following up with the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), which is available in the Blueprint assessment library.
The PTSST-Parent report version is also available on Blueprint.
Items 1, 2, and 15 are not included in the final score and should be reviewed separately by the clinician.
Citation
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