severity continua. Two studies (Scher et al. 2001; Spinhoven et al. 2014) have performed CFA using data collected with the widely used Childhood Trauma Questionnaire‐Short Form, a 28‐item retrospective self‐report measure from which five factors can be derived, each representing forms of abuse and neglect. One report (Scher et al. 2001) found that the original five correlated first‐order factors (Bernstein et al. 2003) provided somewhat better statistical fit than a model that assumed that the five factors were not intercorrelated, but instead loaded onto a single higher order factor. A later report (Spinhoven et al. 2014) found two alternative models had comparable fit to the original five factor model: (i) five correlated first‐order factors loading onto a single latent general factor; and (ii) allowing individual items to load directly onto both the five first‐order factors and a general factor.
