Citation

Contreras-Pezzotti L, Arteaga-Medina J, Campo-Arias A. Vertex 2009; 20(83): 5-9.

Vernacular Title

Estudio de la consistencia interna y estructura factorial de la Escala de Impacto

Affiliation

Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia. campoarias@comportamientohumano.org.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Polemos)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

19434295

Abstract

Background: the Impact of Event Scale is used to identify possible cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in clinical settings. However, among Colombians its psychometric properties are unknown. Objective: to establish the internal consistency and factor structure of the Impact of Event Scale among women referred for forensic examination due to violence in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Methods: a group of 310 women between 18 and 65 years participated in this research. The mean age was 31.6 years (SD = 10.7); the mean scholarship was 8.8 years (SD = 4.4); 59.1% were half or full-time employees; 58.7% were married; 60.6% lived in low-class neighbourhood; and 52.3% reported having been victim of physical assault. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated and the factor structure was explored for the Impact of Event Scale. Results: the Cronbach coefficient was 0.80 and three-dimensional structure (reexperiencing, avoidant behaviors and restricted affect) that accounted for roughly 50% of the variance. Conclusions: the Impact of Event Scale shows acceptable internal consistency and three factors explain significant percentage of the variance.

Language: es