Tests and methods

• Elklit, A. (2002). Attitudes Toward Rape Victims. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 3, (1), 73-83.

The present study assessed the contribution of gender, age, education and traumatic experiences on attitudes toward rape victims. The Attitudes Toward Rape Victims Scale (ARVS) was completed by 312 website visitors who entered the Danish website: www.voldtaegt.dk. The site is designed to meet the needs of rape victims in acute distress as well as the needs of the public and of professionals. The analysis of ARVS showed a three-dimensional factor structure. Males had less favourable attitudes toward rape victims than tudes did women; but attitudes became more favourable as age and education increased. The experience of rape, accidents and losing someone close also influenced the attitudes in a favourable direction. The data analysis is equivalent to the more traditionally collected samples, which gives credibility to the use of website-based studies of attitudes. The Danish sample had more favourable attitudes toward rape victims than a Singaporean student sample, a US male student sample and an Australian student sample, but less favourable than a US female student sample. The ARVS seems to be a valuable and sensitive instrument for crosscultural research in victimology.

• Kongerslev, M. T., Bach, B., Rossi, G., M. Trauelsen, A., Ladegaard, N., Schandorph Løkkegaard, S., & Bo, S. (2019). Psychometric validation of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) in a Danish clinical sample. Child Abuse & Neglect, 94(August), [104026]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104026

The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form (CTQ-SF) is a widely utilized self-report instrument in the assessment and characterization of childhood trauma. Yet, research on the instrument's psychometric properties in clinical samples is sparse, and the Danish version of the CTQ-SF has not been previously evaluated in clinical samples. Objectives: To examine the structural validity, internal consistency reliability, and multi-method convergent validity of the CTQ-SF in a heterogenous clinical sample from Denmark. Participants and setting: The study was based on data from four Danish clinical samples (N = 393): 1) Outpatients diagnosed with personality disorders, 2) Patients commencing psychiatric treatment for non-affective first-episode psychosis, 3) Patients diagnosed with first-episode or prolonged depression recruited from general practitioners and an outpatient mood disorder clinic, and 4) detained delinquent boys. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis was used to explore structural validity. Also, we calculated internal consistency and multi-method convergent validity with interview-based ratings of adverse parenting. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the five-factor structure described in CTQ-SF manual with three error correlated items best fitted the data, as compared to various other models. Coefficients of congruence also supported factorial similarity across countries (i.e. US substance abuser and a mixed Brazilian sample). Internal consistency reliability was acceptable and comparable to estimates previously published. Multi-method convergent validity associations further corroborated the validity of the CTQ-SF. Conclusion: These findings provide support for the reliability and validity of the Danish version of the CTQ-SF in clinical samples.

• Elklit, A. (1996). Coping Styles Questionnaire: A further validation of a scale for measuring coping strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 809-812.
  
  The present study describes a contribution to the validation of the Coping Styles Questionnaire (CSQ); which is a scale for measuring coping strategies. An earlier study had suggested that there were four primary coping clusters: instrumental, emotional, avoidance, and distancing. This validation of CSQ confirmed the existence of the four clusters, but there was only partial agreement on the composition of the distancing component. Therefore, the CSQ should be used only with some modifications.
  
• Elklit, A. (1996). Hvad viste “Coping Style Questionnaire”? Forskningsnyt fra Psykologien, 5, (1), 22-28.
  
  
• Elklit, A. (1995). Hvilke strategier bruger vi for at klare belastninger? Forskningsnyt fra Psykologien, 4, (6), 21-24.
  
  

• Elklit, A. & Simonsen, E. (2007). MCMI-III, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III. Vejledning. København: Psykologisk forlag.
  
  
• Elklit, A. & Simonsen, E. (2002). En introduktion til Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. København: Psykologisk forlag.
  
  
• Simonsen, E. & Elklit, A. (2008). Experiences in Translating and Validating the MCMI in Denmark. In Millon, T. & Bloom, C. (Eds.) The Millon Inventories: A Practitioner's Guide to Personalized Clinical Assessment. 2nd edition. NY.: Guilford Press. pp 387-404.
  
  Theodore Millon introduced his Millon inventories to Europe for the first time at the International Congress "Clinical Implications of the MMPI," held at the Department of Psychiatry, Nordvang Hospital, University of Copenhagen, in 1983. Millon also presented pertinent historical literature and elaborated on his fundamental perspectives regarding the interaction of personality and psychopathology. Impressed and inspired by his innovative, systematic, and timely insights into the varying schools of psychopathology, a group of Danish psychiatrists and psychologists formed a "Millon study group." The members of the group were a strong and creative mixture of psychoanalysts, behaviorists, neuropsychologists, experienced clinicians, and researchers, who gathered regularly and had in common a genuine curiosity about psychopathology. Each one paid respect to others' ideas and experiences in working with psychopathology, and all were inspired to broaden their own views. By furthering their exploration of Millon's inventories and theories, the group members sought to investigate the impact of understanding a patient's psychopathology on the choice and planning of treatment. Important sources for group discussions and clinical vignettes included Millon's newly released seminal book. Disorders of Personality: DSM-III, Axis II (Millon, 1981), select Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-I (MCMI-I) patient profiles, and other available clinical evaluations and psychological tests. As one result of the group's meetings, the members agreed that there was a pressing need for a Danish translation of the MCMI. The MCMI is one of the few self-report tests that focus on both symptoms and personality disorders and their relationship. The MCMI-I was developed in 1977, and it was subsequently revised in 1987 and 1994 (Millon, 1977, 1987, 1994). In this chapter, we discuss first how the translation of the MCMI-I into Danish took place, and then describe the efforts to improve and revise a subsequent translation with guidance of empirical research

• Elklit, A. (1992). Om anvendelsen af Trail Making Test (TMT) som et neuropsykologisk screeningsinstrument. Nordisk Psykologi, 44, (3), 234-236.

• Elklit, A. (2005). ”For Love or Money” – om licenspenge og testudvikling. Matrix, 22, (2), 168-177.

• Iversen, T. N., Christiansen, D. M. & Elklit, A. (2011). Posttraumatisk vækst: Et kritisk review over problemer med de nuværende målinger af begrebet. Psyke og Logos, 32(2), 290-320.
  
  
• 'Bitsch, L. J., Elklit, A. & Christiansen, D. M. (2011). Basic Problems with the Measurement of Posttraumatic Growth. Institut for Psykologi, Syddansk Universitet. (1-29).
  
  
  

• Hansen, M., Andersen, T. E., Armour, C., Elklit, A., Palic, S., & Mackrill, T. (2010). PTSD-8: A brief screening instrument for PTSD. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, 6, 101-108, 2010.
  
  Traumatic events pose great challenges on mental health services in scarcity of specialist trauma clinicians and services. Simple short screening instruments for detecting adverse psychological responses are needed. Several brief screening instruments have been developed. However, some are limited, especially in relation to reflecting the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. Recently, several studies have challenged pre-existing ideas about PTSD's latent structure. Factor analytic research currently supports two four factor models. One particular model contains a dysphoria factor which has been associated with depression and anxiety. The symptoms in this factor have been hailed as less specific to PTSD. The scope of this article is therefore to present a short screening instrument, based on this research; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - 8 items. The PTSD-8 is shown to have good psychometric properties in three independent samples of whiplash patients (n=1710), rape victims (n=305), and disaster victims (n=516). Good test-rest reliability is also shown in a pilot study of young adults from families with alcohol problems (n=56).

• Elklit, A., Pedersen, S.S. & Jind, L. (2001). The Crisis Support Scale: Psychometric qualities and further validation. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, (8), 1291-1302. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00220-8
  
  The objective of the present study was to provide a further validation of the Crisis Support Scale, which is a short scale for measuring social support after a crisis has occurred. The data from eleven trauma studies of 4213 subjects were used to investigate the psychometric properties of the scale and the differences that emerge due to age, gender, and type of trauma. The scale appears to be very robust. Some aspects of crisis support seem to decrease as time goes by while others increase. Women survivors report less support than men both right after the trauma and later on. The younger survivors tend to report the least support in the acute phase although this picture is reversed later on. The various types of trauma have different item profiles, which supports the concurrent validity of the scale.