Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.

<h4>Background</h4>Current diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not include symptoms resulting from exposure to continuous or ongoing traumatic stress. Thus existing assessment tools do not fully capture stress symptoms associated with exposure to threats that...

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Main Authors: Aviva Goral, Paula Feder-Bubis, Mooli Lahad, Sandro Galea, Norm O'Rourke, Limor Aharonson-Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251724&type=printable
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author Aviva Goral
Paula Feder-Bubis
Mooli Lahad
Sandro Galea
Norm O'Rourke
Limor Aharonson-Daniel
author_facet Aviva Goral
Paula Feder-Bubis
Mooli Lahad
Sandro Galea
Norm O'Rourke
Limor Aharonson-Daniel
author_sort Aviva Goral
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background</h4>Current diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not include symptoms resulting from exposure to continuous or ongoing traumatic stress. Thus existing assessment tools do not fully capture stress symptoms associated with exposure to threats that extend over months or years. To address this void, we enumerated the symptoms associate with ongoing exposure to stress including those that are distinct from existing PTSD diagnostic criteria.<h4>Objectives</h4>To develop the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response Scale (CTSR) and assess its psychometric properties.<h4>Method</h4>We sampled 313 adults exposed and unexposed to ongoing security threat between December 2016 and February 2017. Respondents lived in communities bordering the Gaza Strip in southern Israel where they are exposed to frequent rocket attacks, requiring they locate and find shelter in 30 seconds or less. We assessed the concurrent validity of CTSR relative to the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS).<h4>Results</h4>On the basis of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we retained 11 of 25 items measuring three distinct factors: exhaustion/detachment, rage/betrayal, and fear/helplessness. We found moderate concurrence between the scales; that is, the CTSR appears to measure a construct related to, but distinct from PTSD. This conclusion is supported by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicating that each factor significantly contributes to measurement of a higher-order, continuous traumatic stress latent construct.<h4>Conclusions</h4>These results support the psychometric properties of CTSR. Future research is required to confirm these findings in other countries and cultures and among individuals exposed to other forms of continuous traumatic stress.
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spelling doaj-art-d47e14297a6c45ffbf2c909f03e760c72025-08-20T02:54:31ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-01165e025172410.1371/journal.pone.0251724Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.Aviva GoralPaula Feder-BubisMooli LahadSandro GaleaNorm O'RourkeLimor Aharonson-Daniel<h4>Background</h4>Current diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not include symptoms resulting from exposure to continuous or ongoing traumatic stress. Thus existing assessment tools do not fully capture stress symptoms associated with exposure to threats that extend over months or years. To address this void, we enumerated the symptoms associate with ongoing exposure to stress including those that are distinct from existing PTSD diagnostic criteria.<h4>Objectives</h4>To develop the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response Scale (CTSR) and assess its psychometric properties.<h4>Method</h4>We sampled 313 adults exposed and unexposed to ongoing security threat between December 2016 and February 2017. Respondents lived in communities bordering the Gaza Strip in southern Israel where they are exposed to frequent rocket attacks, requiring they locate and find shelter in 30 seconds or less. We assessed the concurrent validity of CTSR relative to the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS).<h4>Results</h4>On the basis of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we retained 11 of 25 items measuring three distinct factors: exhaustion/detachment, rage/betrayal, and fear/helplessness. We found moderate concurrence between the scales; that is, the CTSR appears to measure a construct related to, but distinct from PTSD. This conclusion is supported by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicating that each factor significantly contributes to measurement of a higher-order, continuous traumatic stress latent construct.<h4>Conclusions</h4>These results support the psychometric properties of CTSR. Future research is required to confirm these findings in other countries and cultures and among individuals exposed to other forms of continuous traumatic stress.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251724&type=printable
spellingShingle Aviva Goral
Paula Feder-Bubis
Mooli Lahad
Sandro Galea
Norm O'Rourke
Limor Aharonson-Daniel
Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.
PLoS ONE
title Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.
title_full Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.
title_fullStr Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.
title_full_unstemmed Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.
title_short Development and validation of the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response scale (CTSR) among adults exposed to ongoing security threats.
title_sort development and validation of the continuous traumatic stress response scale ctsr among adults exposed to ongoing security threats
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251724&type=printable
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