Premium
Crowdsourcing Trauma: Psychopathology in a Trauma‐Exposed Sample Recruited via Mechanical Turk
Author(s) -
StolkCooke Katherine,
Brown Andrew,
Maheux Anne,
Parent Justin,
Forehand Rex,
Price Matthew
Publication year - 2018
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.22303
Subject(s) - crowdsourcing , psychopathology , psychology , sample (material) , clinical psychology , posttraumatic stress , population , traumatic stress , sample size determination , psychiatry , medicine , chemistry , environmental health , chromatography , statistics , mathematics , political science , law
Although crowdsourcing websites like Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) allow researchers to conduct research efficiently, it is unclear if MTurk and traditionally recruited samples are comparable when assessing the sequela of traumatic events. We compared the responses to validated self‐report measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related constructs that were given by 822 participants recruited via MTurk and had experienced a DSM‐5 Criterion A traumatic event to responses obtained in recent samples of participants recruited via traditional methods. Results suggested that the rate of PTSD in the present sample (19.8%) was statistically higher than that found in a recent systematic review of studies that used only traditional recruitment methods. The severity of PTSD reported in the MTurk sample was significantly greater than that reported in a college sample, d = 0.24, and significantly less than that reported in a veteran sample, d = 0.90. The factor structure of PTSD found in the MTurk sample was consistent with prevailing models of PTSD. Findings indicate that crowdsourcing may improve access to this hard‐to‐reach population.