Assessing post-traumatic stress symptoms in a Latino prison population Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to assess the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the Davidson trauma scale (DTS-S) and to determine the prevalence and correlates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in a non-clinical random sample of prison inmates.Design/methodology/approach– Probabilistic samples of 1,179 inmates from 26 penal institutions in Puerto Rico were selected using a multistage sampling design. Population estimates and correlations were obtained for PTSD, generalized anxiety and depression. The reliability, factor structure, and convergent validity of the DTS-S were assessed. Cross-validation was employed to confirm the results of the factor analyses.Findings– Using the cut-offs adopted by the scale's author, 136 (13.4 percent) of the inmates are likely to have current PTSD and 117 (11.6 percent) reach the cut-off for sub-threshold PTSD. Confirmatory factor analysis generated two factors explaining 53 percent of the variance. High reliabilities were obtained for the total scale (α=0.95) and for the frequency and severity scales (α=0.90 and 0.91). Significantly higher DTS-S scores were found for females (t=2.26,p<0.025), for inmates diagnosed with depression or anxiety (t=2.02,p<0.05), and those reporting suicide attempts (t=4.47,p<0.0001).Originality/value– Findings support that the DTS-S is a reliable and valid measure to assess PTSD symptoms in Latino inmate populations and to identify individuals at risk for the disorder that require confirmatory diagnosis and clinical interventions.

publication date

  • 2013

number of pages

  • 11

start page

  • 196

end page

  • 207

volume

  • 9

issue

  • 4