Suvremena psihologija, Vol. 2 No. 1-2, 1999.
Stručni rad
Some metric indicators in the questionnaire on children's post-traumatic stress reactions
Gordana Kuterovac-Jagodić
Vlasta Vizek-Vidović
Sažetak
Children's exposure to an increasing number and variety of traumatic and stressful experiences in the modern world raised the need for a valid, objective and reliable assessment of the occurrence of post-traumatic stress reactions in children. The paper describes a procedure of construction, development and assessment of metric indicators of the Questionnaire on Post-traumatic Stress Reactions in children devised by Kuterovac-Jagodić, Franc and Vizek-Vidović (PTSRQ-Children, 1993). Metric characteristics of the questionnaire were assessed on a sample of 994 elementary school children aged 9–14 years. PTSRQ-C is a self-reporting instrument of paper-pencil type consisting of 20 items that describe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The analysis of main components pointed to the existence of four factors which account for 43.9% of total result variance: "Imposure and arousal", "Changed experience", "Avoidance" and "Suppression". Reliability of the whole questionnaire as manifested by the coefficient of internal reliability is .82, whereas the sub-scale reliabilities range from .44 to .75. Criterion validity of the questionnaire was assessed by correlating the results obtained by the PTSRQ-C questionnaire to the number and type of traumatic and stressful war experiences and to other reactions emerging after stressful and traumatic events (anxiety, depression, psychosomatic reactions, psychosocial adaptation). Conclusion is that PTSR-C questionnaire may serve as a useful instrument in the initial stage of identification of trauma producing effects in children.
Ključne riječi
Trauma; children; assessment of post-traumatic stress reactions
Hrčak ID:
3189
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.12.1999.
Posjeta: 933 *