Assessing traumatic event exposure: General issues and preliminary findings for the Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire
Authors:
- 1 July 1998
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Traumatic Stress
- Vol. 11 (3) , 521-542
Abstract
This article reviews the psychometric properties of the Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire (SLESQ), a recently developed trauma history screening measure, and discusses the complexities involved in assessing trauma exposure. There are relatively few general measures of exposure to a variety of types of traumatic events, and most of those that exist have not been subjected to rigorous psychometric evaluation. The SLESQ showed good test‐retest reliability, with a median kappa of .73, adequate convergent validity (with a lengthier interview) with a median kappa of .64, and good discrimination between Criterion A and non‐Criterion A events. The discussion addresses some of the challenges of assessing traumatic event exposure along the dimensions of defining traumatic events, assessment methodologies, reporting consistency, and incident validation.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Trauma Symptom InventoryJournal of Interpersonal Violence, 1995
- The civilian version of the Mississippi PTSD scale: A psychometric evaluationJournal of Traumatic Stress, 1995
- Prevalence of traumatic events and post‐traumatic psychological symptoms in a nonclinical sample of college studentsJournal of Traumatic Stress, 1994
- Prevalence of civilian trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in a representative national sample of women.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1993
- Reliability and validity of a brief instrument for assessing post‐traumatic stress disorderJournal of Traumatic Stress, 1993
- Self‐reported amnesia for abuse in adults molested as childrenJournal of Traumatic Stress, 1993
- Epidemiology of trauma: Frequency and impact of different potentially traumatic events on different demographic groups.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1992
- Screening for Traumatic Stress: A Scale for Use in the General Population1Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1990
- The scope of rape: Incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of higher education students.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1987
- Sexual Experiences Survey: A research instrument investigating sexual aggression and victimization.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1982