Psychometric Evaluation of the TIC Grade, a Self-Report Measure to Assess Youth Perceptions of the Quality of Trauma-Informed Care They Received.
Nicole Boucher, Cynthia S Darling-Fisher, Laura Sinko and 3 others
PMID 32907448WHAT IT FOUND
Youth who completed the TIC Grade rated trauma-informed care mostly positively, and a single letter grade tracked the fuller questionnaire.
It gives clinicians quick client feedback, not proof that care improves health.
Key findings
01The questionnaire split into two subscales, trauma practices and trauma principles, and both showed high reliability.
02A single overall letter grade was moderately correlated with both subscales.
03Ratings skewed positive, with 65% assigning an A and only one assigning an F, although the full range was used.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 100 forms were collected from four homeless-serving sites in southeastern Michigan, so the results may not apply to other settings or populations. The questionnaire was evaluated only with people older than 18, and the authors say further validation is needed for a broader age range, including children or adults. Eight forms had missing ratings and were excluded from factor analysis, missing values were replaced with respondent means, and ambiguous marks were resolved by a coin toss. The factor analysis was exploratory, and the authors call for confirmatory factor analysis and more validity testing. Ratings were skewed positive, with 65% assigning an A and only one assigning an F, so the tool may not detect small differences in service quality. The text gives different coefficient alpha values for the two subscales in two places, so exact reliability numbers need checking.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the TIC Grade as proof that trauma-informed care improves health outcomes. It measures how youth rated the care they received, and it was evaluated only in 100 respondents from four community sites.