Development and preliminary validation of a brief broad-spectrum measure of trauma exposure: The traumatic life events questionnaire

This article describes the development and preliminary validation of a brie f questionnaire that assesses exposure to a broad range of potentially trau matic events. Items were generated from multiple sources of information. Ev ents were described in behaviorally descriptive terms, consistent with Diag nostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV posttraumatic stress d isorder stressor criterion Al. When events were endorsed, respondents sere asked if they experienced intense fear, helplessness, or horror (stressor c riterion A2). In separate studies with college students, Vietnam veterans, battered women, and residents of a substance abuse program, most items poss essed adequate to excellent temporal stability. In a study comparing questi onnaire and structured-interview inquiries of trauma history, the 2 formats yielded similar rates of disclosure. Preliminary data on positive predicti ve power are also presented.