TY - JOUR PY - 2019// TI - Psychometric properties of a Haitian Kreyòl version of the trauma symptom checklist JO - Journal of affective disorders A1 - Joshi, Manisha A1 - Rahill, Guitele J. A1 - Rice, Christopher SP - 238 EP - 244 VL - 260 IS - N2 - BACKGROUND: In this study, the first to examine psychometrics of a Haitian Kreyòl version of the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40), we investigated trauma symptoms in survivors of Haiti's 2010 earthquake who reside in Haiti's Cité Soleil slum, a violent neighborhood where non-partner sexual violence (NPSV) is rampant and whose residents are historically underrepresented in research.

METHODS: 233 women and 280 men 18 years or older completed the TSC-40. Differential Item Function (DIF) analysis was performed on the TSC-40 responses for women and men. We examined symptom counts by gender, between NPSV victims and non-victims, and by interaction between gender and NPSV experience.

RESULTS: We identified a reduced pool of 17-items that exhibited no gender bias. This 17-item index showed acceptable internal consistency reliability (α = 0.87). Employing this index, average symptom counts for women (x¯ = 11.3) did not differ from men (x¯= 11.1). Average symptom counts for NPSV victims was greater (x¯ = 12.5) than for non-victims (x¯= 10.7). The gender by experience of NPSV interaction indicated that women victims had the highest symptom counts (x¯=14.0). LIMITATIONS: We used non-probability sampling, and data were from self-reports collected in a cross-sectional survey.

CONCLUSIONS: Observed differences in trauma burden are likely to be misleading if instruments are administered without regard to DIF. We contribute a Haitian Kreyòl Trauma Symptom 17-item index, which offers clinicians/practitioners in Haiti the opportunity to use a valid and reliable measure of enduring trauma symptoms validated in Haiti.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0165-0327 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.09.004 ID - ref1 ER -