Frequency and severity approaches to indexing exposure to trauma: The Critical Incident History Questionnaire for police officers

The Critical Incident History Questionnaire indexes cumulative exposure to traumatic incidents in police by examining incident frequency and rated severity. In over 700 officers, event severity was negatively correlated (rs = −.61) with frequency of exposure. Cumulative exposure indices that varied...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of traumatic stress Vol. 23; no. 6; pp. 734 - 743
Main Authors Weiss, Daniel S., Brunet, Alain, Best, Suzanne R., Metzler, Thomas J., Liberman, Akiva, Pole, Nnamdi, Fagan, Jeffrey A., Marmar, Charles R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Germantown Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.12.2010
Wiley
Subjects
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
California - epidemiology
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
New York City - epidemiology
Occupational Exposure - statistics & numerical data
Police
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics
Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Surveys and Questionnaires - standards
Techniques and methods
Wounds and Injuries - classification
Wounds and Injuries - epidemiology
New York City
California
Human
Questionnaire
Anxiety disorder
Psychometrics
Policeman
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Exposure
Critical incident
Test reliability
Content validity
Trauma
Test validation
Interrater agreement
Risk factor
Severity score
Test construction
Antecedent
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Summary:The Critical Incident History Questionnaire indexes cumulative exposure to traumatic incidents in police by examining incident frequency and rated severity. In over 700 officers, event severity was negatively correlated (rs = −.61) with frequency of exposure. Cumulative exposure indices that varied emphasis on frequency and severity—using both nomothetic and idiographic methods—all showed satisfactory psychometric properties and similar correlates. All indices were only modestly related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Ratings of incident severity were not influenced by whether officers had ever experienced the incident. Because no index summarizing cumulative exposure to trauma had superior validity, our findings suggest that precision is not increased if frequency is weighted by severity. Traditional and Simplified Chinese s by AsianSTSS
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-X5PX0WH5-8
ArticleID:JTS20576
istex:C4DA8B6C3538DFE07AD95BF25F9AA3328B2F2D28
ISSN:0894-9867
1573-6598
DOI:10.1002/jts.20576