The experience of traumatic events disrupts the measurement invariance of a posttraumatic stress scale.

ABSTRACT: Studies that include multiple assessments of a particular instrument within the same population are based on the presumption that this instrument measures the same construct over time. But what if the meaning of the construct changes over time due to one's experiences? For example, the experience of a traumatic event can influence one's view of the world, others, and self, and may disrupt the stability of a questionnaire measuring posttraumatic stress symptoms (i.e., it may affect the interpretation of items). Nevertheless, assessments before and after such a traumatic event are crucial to study longitudinal development of posttraumatic stress symptoms. In this study, we examined measurement invariance of posttraumatic stress symptoms in a sample of Dutch soldiers before and after they wen

SUBMITTER: Lommen MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4235410 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature