STATISTICAL TESTING OF THE IMPACT OF EVEN T SCALE - RELIABILITY AND STABILITY

A German version of the Impact of Event-Scale (IES) is introduced as a measure of event-related stress. The scale differentiates between two forms of individual reaction tendencies - intrusion and avoidance - i n the face of critical life events. Psychometric properties of the IES are reported based on longitudinal data (four occasions of measuremen t) from 130 male adults as well as data from a sample of 104 alcoholic s and 42 female cancer patients. Furthermore, analyses of positional a nd level stability were performed. Besides the classical methods of re liability analysis, the method of linear structural equation modeling was used. Results show that the scale's reliability is sufficient. Sta bility analyses show that the variance of intrusion and avoidance is a ccounted for by stable individual differences as well as occasion-spec ific effects of life events.