Citation

de Jong JTVM, Komproe IH, Spinazzola J, van der Kolk BA, Van Ommeren MH. J. Trauma. Stress 2005; 18(1): 13-21.

Affiliation

Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. jdejong.tpo@pom.nl

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/jts.20005

PMID

16281191

Abstract

This study examined the cross-cultural construct equivalence of the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES), an instrument designed to assess symptoms of Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS). Participants completed the SIDES as a part of an epidemiological survey conducted between 1997 and 1999 among survivors of war or mass violence in Algeria (n = 652), Ethiopia (n = 1,200), and Gaza (n = 585). Findings indicated that the factor structure of the SIDES across samples was not stable; thus construct equivalence was not shown. A multistep interdisciplinary method is proposed to improve the cross-cultural construct validity of a psychiatric concept. This method accommodates universal chronic sequelae of extreme stress and accommodates culture-specific symptoms across a variety of cultures.

Language: en