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A Pilot Study of a Measure of Parental Trust in Pediatric Emergency Department Care Teams. OBJECTIVE: To modify and test an existing measure of trust validated in a primary care setting for use in a pediatric emergency department (PED). METHODS: The study population was parents/guardians who brought their child to an urban PED with a chief complaint of abdominal pain or head injury. We used a 2-phase design with modifications resulting from cognitive interviews with 15 participants followed by a field test with 150 participants. We measured usefulness by percent missing responses and ceiling effects. Cronbach's alpha and greatest lower bound measured reliability. As evidence of validity, we calculated a total trust score by summing the item scale values and correlating the score with measures of constructs shown to be positively associated with trust in other settings. We conducted a similar analysis to test a published shortened version of the same scale. RESULTS: Four items were modified prior to field testing. Ceiling effects for each item ranged from 53% to 67%. Missing data were minimal affecting only 2 items. The modified measure exhibited high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .88, greatest lower bound = 0.93). Total trust scores ranged from 27 to 50 with mean (standard deviation) = 45.1 (4.9). The trust score exhibited a high positive correlation with communication and overall satisfaction, and moderate correlation with intent to adhere to physician recommendations. The short version of the scale performed similarly. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that the modified Wake Forest measure of trust is applicable and useful in the PED setting for this patient population.