Civilian PTSD Scales
- 1 June 2005
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Assessment
- Vol. 12 (2), 220-230
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191104273130
Abstract
Strong associations between civilian posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scales and measures of general psychological distress suggest that the scales are nonspecific to PTSD. Three common PTSD scales were administered to 122 undergraduates who had experienced an emotionally salient, nontraumatic event: a college examination. Results indicated that normal levels of anxiety associated with the examination were positively correlated with scores on the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Revised Civilian Mississippi Scale, and PTSD Checklist-CivilianVersion. Multiple regression analyses indicated that substantial variance in the PTSD scales was accounted for by trait characteristics such as negative and positive affectivity and affect intensity (R2 .29 to .53). Negative affectivity correlated as highly with PTSD measures (r = .46 to .71) as those measures correlated with each other (r = .48 to .65). A high proportion of participants exceeded clinical cutoffs on these measures. The findings suggest that these PTSD scales may be overly sensitive to nontraumatic stressors such as everyday distress and trait characteristics.Keywords
This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- Sixand Ten-Item Indexes of Psychological Distress Based on the Symptom Checist-90Assessment, 2000
- Validation of the PTSD checklist–civilian version in survivors of bone marrow transplantationJournal of Traumatic Stress, 1999
- Effects of varying diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder are endorsing the concept of partial PTSDJournal of Traumatic Stress, 1999
- Psychometric properties of the PTSD checklist (PCL)Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1996
- Frequency and correlates of posttraumatic-stress-disorder-like symptoms after treatment for breast cancer.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1995
- The Aetiology of Post-traumatic Morbidity: Predisposing, Precipitating and Perpetuating FactorsThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1989
- Positive and negative affectivity and their relation to anxiety and depressive disorders.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1988
- Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1988
- Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Three studies in reliability and validity.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1988
- Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: A reviewJournal of Research in Personality, 1987