A very important subject of course, and one that demands careful study. I commend your reaching out for input. 

Regarding the question of whether to assess PTSD or trauma in general - you are, I believe, much better off assessing PTSD, for several reasons. First, it is a phenomenon that has been defined according to diagnostic criteria in both DSM-5 and ICD-10. There are various measures you can use to assess whether the patient/subject/participant meets criteria for full clinical PTSD, for sub-threshold, or seems clear of it. The other side of this is the question of measuring trauma - this is going to be far more subjective and therefore guaranteed to raise questions and issues relative to either objective or empirical measure. Moreover, many have talked about creating a taxonomy of trauma, but I don't believe anyone has succeeded. For example, how would you quantify severity? Is a gunshot wound more traumatic than a knife wound? "Is witnessing torture of your brothers or sisters better or worse (more severe and ultimately traumatic) than experiencing yourself? The bottom line is that before you do anything else, you have to satisfactorily define trauma relative to stress, and that is not a simple task. Better to focus at this point on PTSD. 

You can find a very good list of measures from the National Center for PTSD at the following link: http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/assessment/all_measures.asp. Wishing you the best of luck! Keep us informed!

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/assessment/all_measures.asp

It's a tricky question because the impact of trauma related to childhood abuse is understood as a "complex trauma" or "complex PTSD" presentation by many experts in the field but this has not translated into a discrete diagnosis in DSM 5. C-PTSD is described as the overarching diagnosis for a syndrome that includes borderline personality disorder, somatisation disorder, and dissociative identiity disorder so a mix of measures which capture this spectrum of symptoms is necessary for a thorough case conceptualisation if you are seeing someone with a childhood abuse history. Because this is an emerging area, there are some excellent research articles which discuss the etiology of C-PTSD (particularly by Bessel van der Kolk) but an absence of validated assessment tools. In my experience the Impact of Event Scale (Revised), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire, and the Dissociative Experiences Scale are worth looking into. 

If you are simply looking for something to structure your clinical work, you may find the proposed diagnostic criteria for C-PTSD sufficient (taken from J. Herman, Trauma and Recovery, 1997):

1. A history of subjection to totalitarian control over a prolonged period (months to years.) Examples include hostages, prisoners of war, concentration-camp survivors, and survivors of some religious cults. Examples also include those subjected to totalitarian systems in sexual and domestic life, including survivors of domestic battering, childhood physical or sexual abuse, and organized sexual exploitation.

2. Alterations in affect regulation, including:

• persistent dysphoria

• chronic suicidal preoccupation

• self-injury

• explosive or extremely inhibited anger (may alternate)

• compulsive or extremely inhibited sexuality (may alternate)

3. Alterations in consciousness, including:

• amnesia or hypermnesia for traumatic events

• transient dissociative episodes

• depersonalization/derealization

• reliving experiences, either in the form of intrusive post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or in the form of ruminative preoccupation

4. Alterations in self-perception, including:

• sense of helplessness or paralysis of initiative

• shame, guilt, and self-blame

• sense of defilement or stigma

• sense of complete difference from others (may include sense of specialness, utter aloneness, belief no other person can understand, or nonhuman identity)

5. Alterations in perception of perpetrator, including:

• preoccupation with relationship with perpetrator (includes preoccupation with revenge)

• unrealistic attribution of total power to perpetrator (caution: victim's assessment of power realities may be more realistic than clinician's)

• idealization or paradoxical gratitude

• sense of special or supernatural relationship

• acceptance of belief system or rationalizations of perpetrator

6. Alterations in relations with others, including:

• isolation and withdrawal

• disruption in intimate relationships

• repeated search for rescuer (may alternate with isolation and withdrawal)

• persistent distrust

• repeated failures of self-protection

7. Alterations in systems of meaning, including:

• loss of sustaining faith

• sense of hoplessness and despair

Forgive me if you are already well aware of this but there are some really helpful resources out there for therapists working with adult survivors of child abuse, my favourite being the Blue Knot foundation http://www.blueknot.org.au/ who have published some guidelines on treating adult survivors of child abuse https://www.clinicalguidelines.gov.au/portal/2164/practice-guidelines-treatment-complex-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care-and-service which may be worth a look.  

I hope the above is helpful to you. Best of luck in your important work. 

Thank you very much for all your very intersting answers. As I am working with a french population, so I'm still looking for the best translated and validated scale among all your suggestions.  

Thank you very much for all of your advice and the information you gave me.

I will let you know as soon as I have made a decision. 

Best regards,

Marie ROQUES