Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2010
Publication Title
Journal of Traumatic Stress
Abstract
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.
Volume
23
Issue
6
First Page
734
Last Page
743
DOI
10.1002/jts.20576
ISSN
08949867
Rights
© The Author(s) 2010
Recommended Citation
Weiss, Daniel S.; Brunet, Alain; Best, Suzanne R.; Metzler, Thomas J.; Liberman, Akiva; Pole, Nnamdi; Fagan, Jeffrey A.; and Marmar, Charles R., "Frequency and Severity Approaches to Indexing Exposure to Trauma: The Critical Incident History Questionnaire for Police Officers" (2010). Psychology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs/120
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.