The revised criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual necessitated the development of new screening tools for youth, one of the most widely used of which is the UCLA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index for DSM-5 (RI-5). Thus far, the few studies that have investigated the RI-5’s factor structure have supported a four-factor model. However, to date this research has been limited to youth with histories of exposure to single-event traumatic stressors, a significant limitation as evidence suggests many trauma-exposed youth report exposure to multiple types of traumatic stressors, or polyvictimization. It is imperative to determine the generalizability of previous factor models to specific populations which they are purported to represent. We investigated whether the RI-5’s four-factor model replicated in a sample of 455 polyvictimized justice-involved adolescents. Initial confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the four-factor model did not converge. Therefore, we utilized Bayesian Structural Equations Modeling (BSEM) to determine why the previously proposed factor structure did not converge. The BSEM model suggested that the global factor structure was acceptable and did not require addition or subtraction of any factor or cross-factor loadings. However, small and moderate residual covariances resulted in model misspecification, suggesting there may be additional associations not captured by the current DSM-5 model for polyvictimized youth. Future work should continue examining the RI-5’s factor structure in order to better understand whether the current results are unique and how measurements assessing DSM-5 PTSD symptom criteria perform in diverse trauma-exposed youth populations.

第五版《诊断和统计手册》中修订后的创伤后应激障碍 (PTSD) 标准要求开发新的青少年筛查工具，其中最广泛使用的工具之一是 UCLA 的 DSM-5 创伤后应激障碍反应指数（RI-5）。到目前为止，调查 RI-5 因子结构的少数研究支持四因子模型。然而，迄今为止，这项研究仅限于有接触过单一事件创伤性应激源历史的青少年，这是一个重大限制，因为有证据表明许多遭受创伤的青少年报告暴露于多种类型的创伤性应激源或多重受害者。必须确定先前的因素模型对它们据称代表的特定人群的普遍性。我们调查了 RI-5 的四因素模型是否在 455 名遭受多重受害者、参与司法的青少年样本中得到复制。初步验证性因素分析表明四因素模型并未收敛。因此，我们利用贝叶斯结构方程模型（BSEM）来确定先前提出的因子结构不收敛的原因。 BSEM 模型表明全局因子结构是可以接受的，不需要添加或减去任何因子或跨因子载荷。然而，小和中等的残差协方差导致模型错误指定，这表明当前的DSM-5模型可能无法捕捉到针对多重受害青少年的其他关联。 未来的工作应继续检查 RI-5 的因素结构，以便更好地了解当前结果是否独特，以及评估DSM-5 PTSD 症状标准的测量方法在不同的遭受创伤的青少年群体中的表现如何。