Cross-Cultural Validation of Measures of Traumatic Symptoms in Groups of Asylum Seekers From Chechnya, Afghanistan, and West Africa

Abstract

Internal consistencies and convergent validities of (a) the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25; Mollica, Wyshak, deMarneffe, Khuon, & Lavelle, 1987), (b) the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ; Mollica et al., 1992), (c) the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R; Weiss & Marmar, 1997), (d) the Bradford Somatic Inventory (BSI; Mumford et al., 1991), (e) the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-1; Blake et al., 1990), and (f) the Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale (SASS; Bosc, Dubini, & Polin, 1997), were determined in 150 asylum seekers from Chechnya, Afghanistan, and West Africa using diagnostic interviews as a criterion. For all the instruments, except the SASS, estimates of internal consistency were satisfactory. When used as a continuous measure of symptom frequency and intensity, the CAPS-1 had excellent convergent validity for all three ethnic groups, while formal PTSD criteria yielded high numbers of false negative diagnoses. Among the questionnaires, for Chechnyans the HTQ, and for Afghans and West Africans the IES-R achieved best results with respect to convergent validity.

Dissemination of Psychotherapy for Trauma Spectrum Disorders in Postconflict Settings: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Rwanda

“…The CAPS has stricter diagnostic criteria for PTSD than the other measures and has been validated cross-culturally as a robust measure of PTSD [29,30]. The instruments were interpreted from English into Kinyarwanda, an official language of Rwanda, with the help of 5 students of English interpreting at the National University of Rwanda.…”

Ethnic and migrational impact on the clinical manifestation of depression

“…Validated versions of the MADRS [31,48] and the BDI [23,29] exist in German as well as in Turkish. Regarding the BSI, a German version has been validated in several cultural populations [46] but a Turkish version had to be generated by the authors. The inventory was translated into Turkish by MÇ B, a back translation into German for validity control was performed by a non-member of the study group.…”

Entering exile: Trauma, mental health, and coping among Tibetan refugees arriving in Dharamsala, India

“…Symptoms of PTSD were assessed with a Tibetan version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ; Mollica et al, 1992), also developed by Lhewa et al (2007). The HTQ has demonstrated excellent statistical properties in a number of refugee studies (Hollifield et al, 2002;Renner, Salem, & Ottomeyer, 2006) and is considered the best-supported measure of PTSD for refugee populations (Hollifield et al, 2002). Lhewa et al found high internal consistency (α = .89) for their Tibetan translation of the HTQ and excellent specificity (.93), but poor sensitivity (.33), in part due to the low frequency of PTSD diagnoses in their sample.…”