Measuring cumulative trauma dose, types, and profiles using a development-based taxonomy of traumas.

TLDR

The study develops a concise scale to assess cumulative trauma dose, types, and profiles based on the APA trauma definition and a new two‑way taxonomy, aiming for use in clinical trauma‑informed practice. The authors created the scale, tested it on 501 Iraqi refugees, and introduced a method to quantify trauma types and profiles and examine their links to symptom patterns and health disorders. The scale identified six key trauma factors—collective identity, family, personal identity, interdependence or secondary, man‑made or nature‑made survival, and abandonment—and demonstrated adequate reliability and construct, convergent, divergent, and predictive validity, partially confirming the taxonomy.

Abstract

This study presents a new short scale for measuring cumulative trauma dose, types, and profiles that is based on the APA (American Psychological Association) trauma Group (currently division 56) definition of trauma and a new, two-way development-based taxonomy of trauma. The new measure was tested using a sample of 501 Iraqi refugees who are one of the most traumatized groups. The following six salient factors were found: collective identity, family, personal identity, interdependence or secondary, man-made or nature-made survival, and abandonment types of traumas. The study provided evidence of adequate reliability; construct, convergent, divergent and predictive validity of the new scale and provided partial confirmation of the validity of the development-based taxonomy of traumas. A new method was introduced to measure trauma types and profiles and their differential association with different symptom configurations and health disorders. The newly developed measure can be used in clinical trauma-infor...