Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-24-2025
Abstract
Accumulating evidence indicates that unpredictable signals in early life represent a unique form of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) associated with disrupted neurodevelopmental trajectories in children and adolescents. The Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood (QUIC) was developed to assess early life unpredictability, encompassing social, emotional, and physical unpredictability in a child’s environment, and has been validated in three independent cohorts. However, the importance of identifying ACEs in diverse populations, including non-English speaking groups, necessitates translation of the QUIC. The current study aims to translate and validate a Spanish language version of the QUIC (QUIC-SP) and assess its associations with mental and physical health. Spanish-speaking participants (N = 285) were recruited via the online market crowdsourcing platform, Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), and completed an online survey that included the QUIC-SP and validated Spanish language assessments of physical and mental health. The QUIC-SP demonstrated excellent psychometric properties and similar mean scores, endorsement rates, and internal reliability to the English language version, thus establishing its validity among Spanish-speaking adults. Higher QUIC-SP scores, indicating greater unpredictability in early life, predicted increased symptoms of anxiety, anhedonia, depression, and poorer physical health. Given significant racial and ethnic disparities in health, the QUIC-SP may serve as a valuable tool to address the public health consequences of ACEs among Spanish-speaking populations.
Recommended Citation
Liu SR, Bailey NA, Romero-González S, Moors A, Campos B, Davis EP, et al. (2025) The QUIC-SP: A Spanish language tool assessing unpredictability in early life is linked to physical and mental health. PLoS ONE 20(1): e0298296.. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298296
Supporting information
Copyright
The authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Child Psychology Commons, Health Services Research Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Maternal and Child Health Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Neurosciences Commons, Other Psychiatry and Psychology Commons, Other Public Health Commons, Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in PLoS ONE, volume 20, issue 1, in 2025. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298296