A Study for Scale Development: War Trauma Exposure Scale

Authors : Nurten ÖZÜORÇUN KÜÇÜKERTAN, Ayşe Nuray KARANCI

Pages : 265-293

Doi:10.31682/ayna.1202068

View : 101 | Download : 63

Publication Date : 2023-05-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Despite being widely studied, research only deals with consequences of war. While assessing war effects, the existing instruments take war as a general trauma, simply ask about its existence and skip to the consequences. Thus, there is a gap in assessing what experiences the survivor went through. Aim of the study is to develop a scale that will enable understanding war experiences qualitatively, and also evaluate the impact of them quantitatively, named as War Trauma Exposure Scale insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(WTES);. This study was carried out as part of a thesis insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Author);, with Turkish Cypriot women in North Cyprus insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(N = 168); considering Cyprus War. Three phases were followed: interview, pilot study, and psychometric examination. At psychometric investigation, factor analysis revealed three-factor solution: “Negative Emotions”, “Exposure to Violence”, and “Loss”. The overall reliability of WTES was good insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(r = .91);. Both, Impact of Events Scale insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(IES-R); and the scale were gathered under the same factor with 75.68% variance. Scale showed significant correlations with other related constructs. ANOVA supported that the scale was parallel to IES-R. Chi-square fit test insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(χ²); revealed a good fit. Consequently, the scale is relatively valid and reliable for measuring war-related exposure despite limitations. WTES, is a distinct one since insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1); it directly focuses on war-trauma, insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2); lists 23 real war-trauma exposures to be identified, insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(3); asks the survivor’s war experience and insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(4); assess its influence. Therefore, unlike existing scales to assess war-trauma, WTES helps to understand unique exposure of the war-survivor and assess the psychological impact these exposures.
Keywords : savaş ölçeği, Savaş travması maruziyeti, savaş travması ölçeği

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