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

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychometrics
• Trauma Studies

Background:

• Coping self-efficacy is crucial for individuals experiencing trauma.
• Existing measures may not capture general posttraumatic coping self-efficacy across diverse populations.
• A validated, brief scale is needed for assessing general trauma-related coping self-efficacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the psychometric properties of the Trauma Coping Self-Efficacy (CSE-T) scale.
• To evaluate the measurement equivalence of the CSE-T scale across different trauma-exposed samples.
• To establish the construct validity of a brief, general trauma-related coping self-efficacy measure.

Main Methods:

• Measurement equivalence was examined across multiple samples: hospitalized trauma patients, disaster survivors, and college students.
• A multisample evaluation was conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the CSE-T scale.
• Factor structure, factor loadings, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were analyzed.

Main Results:

• A concise 9-item version of the CSE-T scale demonstrated a robust factor structure across all study samples.
• Factor structure and loadings were consistent across diverse trauma-exposed groups, indicating measurement equivalence.
• The CSE-T scale exhibited strong evidence for convergent and discriminant validity.

Conclusions:

• The 9-item CSE-T scale is a psychometrically sound measure for assessing general posttraumatic coping self-efficacy.
• Measurement equivalence across samples supports the cross-event construct validity of the CSE-T scale.
• Future research should focus on replicating findings and further validating the scale's psychometric properties.