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Assessment, Vol. 12, No. 2, 220-230 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1073191104273130
© 2005 SAGE Publications

Civilian PTSD Scales

Relationships With Trait Characteristics and Everyday Distress

Alicia C. Shapinsky

Wayne State University

Lisa J. Rapport

Wayne State University, rapport{at}sun.science.wayne.edu

Melinda J. Henderson

Wayne State University

Bradley N. Axelrod

John D. Dingell Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center

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.

Key Words: posttraumatic stress disorder • assessment • psychometrics • negative affect • personality


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