Trauma Coping Self-Efficacy: A Context-Specific Self-Efficacy Measure for Traumatic Stress

Abstract

Objective: The psychometric properties of a Trauma Coping Self-Efficacy (CSE-T) scale that assesses general trauma-related coping self-efficacy perceptions were assessed.

Method: Measurement equivalence was assessed using several different samples: hospitalized trauma patients (n₁ = 74, n₂ = 69, n₃ = 60), 3 samples of disaster survivors (n₁ = 273, n₂ = 227, n₃ = 138), and trauma-exposed college students (N = 242). This is the first multisample evaluation of the psychometric properties for a general trauma-related CSE measure.

Results: Results showed that a brief and parsimonious 9-item version of the CSE performed well across the samples with a robust factor structure; factor structure and factor loadings were similar across study samples.

Discussion: The 9-item scale CSE-T demonstrated measurement equivalence across samples indicating that the underlying concept of general posttraumatic CSE is organized in a similar manner in the different trauma-exposed groups. These results offer strong support for cross-event construct validity of the CSE-T scale. Associations of the CSE-T with important expected covariates showed significant evidence for convergent validity. Finally, discriminant validity was also supported. Replication of the factor structure, internal reliability, and other evidence for construct validity is a critical next step for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Figures

Figure 1

Factor Loadings in the Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Values for factor loadings are standardized coefficients. Values above the item names are intercepts. Values are in the order of the hospital/ disaster survivor/ undergraduate student samples. The covariance between error variances of items 1 and 3 is only present in the disaster survivor sample. All coefficients were significant at p