Assessing exposure to traumatic events: Construction and validation of the Inventory of Traumatic Events (IET)

Abstract

Summary A significant number of events are experienced throughout one's life whether they are life events, stressful events or traumatic events. Traumatic events refer to a situation in which the individual is exposed to “an actual death or a threat of death, serious injury or physical violence”. They can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To date, there are many tools in the literature used to identify traumatic events. However, these assessment tools show some limitations as some do not take into account all the characteristics of traumatic events such as the form of exposure or the age at exposure while other do not comply to the new criteria of the DMS-5. Thus, our goal is the construction and validation of a tool for assessing exposure to traumatic events based on the latest DSM-5 definition. We carried out a content validation with French-speaking experts in post-traumatic stress, and then we proceeded to conduct a test-retest to check the fidelity. Our tool has good psychometric qualities. This tool can be used in a clinical or non-clinical context permitting identification and early screening of psychological distress following exposure to a traumatic event, which is a risk factor to PTSD.