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Frequency and severity approaches to indexing exposure to trauma: The Critical Incident History Questionnaire for police officers
Author(s) -
Weiss Daniel S.,
Brunet Alain,
Best Suzanne R.,
Metzler Thomas J.,
Liberman Akiva,
Pole Nnamdi,
Fagan Jeffrey A.,
Marmar Charles R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.20576
Subject(s) - nomothetic and idiographic , nomothetic , posttraumatic stress , clinical psychology , medicine , psychology , cumulative trauma disorder , psychiatry , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , medical emergency , social psychology
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 ( r s = −.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.