Abstract
Violent acts on university campuses are becoming more frequent. Enrollment rates of Latinos at universities is increasing. Research has indicated that youths are more susceptible to trauma, particularly Latinos. Thus, it is imperative to evaluate the validity of commonly used posttraumatic stress measures among Latino college students. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) is one of the most commonly used metrics of posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology. However, it is largely unknown if the IES-R is measuring the same construct across different sub-samples (e.g. Latino versus non-Latino). The current study aimed to assess measurement invariance for the IES-R between Latino and non-Latino participants. A total of 545 participants completed the IES-R. One- and three-factor scoring solutions were compared using confirmatory factor analyses. Measurement invariance was then evaluated by estimating several multiple-group confirmatory factor analytic models. Four models with an increasing degree of invariance across groups were compared. A significant χ2 difference test was used to indicate a significant change in model fit between nested models within the measurement invariance testing process. The three-factor scoring solution could not be used for the measurement invariance process because the subscale correlations were too high for estimation (rs 0.92–1.00). Therefore, the one-factor model was used for the invariance testing process. Invariance was met for each level of invariance: configural, metric, scalar, and strict. All measurement invariance testing results indicated that the one-factor solution for the IES-R was equivalent for the Latino and non-Latino participants.
Highlights
As public violence continues becoming a mainstay in the United States [1], attention has turned to assessing its psychological impact
While there were no differences in the means of the two subsamples, Table 1 does show that a higher maximum score of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) total and Intrusion subscale are observed for the Latino participants
To further understand the distribution of Impact of Event Scale (IES)-R total scores in the two subsamples, we investigated the number of participants in each sample that scored at or above the clinical cut-off score of 24
Summary
As public violence continues becoming a mainstay in the United States [1], attention has turned to assessing its psychological impact. Of particular interest is the influence of campus violence. University campuses have been the venue for some of the deadliest attacks in recent years (e.g., Northern Illinois University, Virginia Tech, & University of California Santa Barbara), and the focus of extensive research [2,3,4]. Measurement invariance to assess the IES-R and treatment, depend on accurately assessing and understanding the impact of such traumatic experiences. Research evaluating the validity of measures for psychiatric symptoms resulting from trauma is critical [5]. The present study aimed to assess measurement invariance of a commonly used posttraumatic stress symptomology scale between Latinos and non-Latinos
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