Concurrent validity of the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES-SR) in a non-clinical sample of South African adolescents

Abstract

The concurrent criterion-related validity of the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES-SR) was examined in a cross-sectional study of 719 secondary school students attending a high school in Durban, South Africa. For purposes of analysis, exposure to complex developmental trauma was defined as exposure to either chronic (>1 month) and/or multiple incidents (5+ types) of interpersonal victimisation prior to the age of 18 years. A series of discriminant analyses indicated that 12 of the 45 items on the SIDES-SR (27%) did not significantly discriminate individuals who had been exposed to complex developmental trauma from those who had not, with the removal of these 12 items from the scale having no significant impact on estimates of the concurrent validity, sensitivity, or specificity of the SIDES-SR. These findings suggest that the SIDES-SR may be characterised by some degree of construct over-representation when applied to South African samples, with further research being indicated in order to not only replicate the present findings but also address the issue of construct under-representation in the South African context.