Abstract
Objective: The Essen Trauma-Inventory (ETI) is a novel instrument for diagnosing posttraumatic and acute stress disorder. It consists of 58 items including 23 symptom based items arranged in four subscales: intrusion, avoidance, hyperarousal and peritraumatic dissociation. It is presently validated in several different samples in different languages. Within this study the ETI will be validated in a German military sample.
Methods: A total of 292 German soldiers were questioned. Age ranged from 18 – 47 years (M = 23.68; SD = 5.68), 6.2% were female. The Impact of Event Scale – Revised and the Posttraumatische Stress Skala-10 were used to evaluate convergent validity, the Symptom Check List 27 (SCL-27) for discriminant validity.
Results: In this sample, objectivity, reliability and validity of the ETI are good to very good. The factorial structure could not be confirmed by factor analysis.
Conclusion: The ETI is an economic test instrument. It is suitable for screening as well as professional diagnostics. It is the only specific German trauma-questionnaire having been validated with good results for its applicability in a sample of military personnel.
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