Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-30-2014
Publication Title
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
Abstract
Trauma exposure contributes to poor mental health among refugees, and exposure often is measured using a cumulative index of items from the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ). Few studies, however, have asked whether trauma subtypes derived from the HTQ could be superior to this cumulative index in predicting mental health outcomes. A community sample of recently arrived Iraqi refugees (N = 298) completed the HTQ and measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms. Principal components analysis of HTQ items revealed a 5-component subtype model of trauma that accounted for more item variance than a 1-component solution. These trauma subtypes also accounted for more variance in PTSD and depression symptoms (12 and 10 %, respectively) than did the cumulative trauma index (7 and 3 %, respectively). Trauma subtypes provided more information than cumulative trauma in the prediction of negative mental health outcomes. Therefore, use of these subtypes may enhance the utility of the HTQ when assessing at-risk populations.
Keywords
Depression, Posttraumatic stress disorder, Refugees, Trauma
Volume
16
Issue
6
First Page
1055
Last Page
1061
DOI
10.1007/s10903-014-9995-9
ISSN
15571912
Rights
© The Author(s) 2014
Recommended Citation
Arnetz, Bengt B.; Broadbridge, Carissa L.; Jamil, Hikmet; Lumley, Mark A.; Pole, Nnamdi; Barkho, Evone; Fakhouri, Monty; Talia, Yousif Rofa; and Arnetz, Judith E., "Specific Trauma Subtypes Improve the Predictive Validity of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire in Iraqi Refugees" (2014). Psychology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs/118
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.