Development and Validation of a Brief Warzone Stressor Exposure Index.

Area of Science:

• Military psychology
• Trauma studies
• Psychometric assessment

Background:

• Existing trauma scales for war zones primarily assess danger-based threats.
• Nondanger-based events, such as moral transgressions and witnessing suffering, are also significant stressors.
• There is a need for comprehensive measures of war zone exposure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a new scale, the Warzone Stressor Exposure Index (WarZEI), to assess diverse war zone stressors.
• To evaluate the WarZEI's psychometric properties, including its factor structure and validity.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey of 6,205 Norwegian military personnel deployed to Afghanistan (2001-2020).
• Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and exploratory graph analysis (EGA) were used for scale development.
• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to validate the proposed three-factor model.

Main Results:

• A 12-item, three-factor model of the WarZEI was developed, comprising personal threat, traumatic witnessing, and moral injury.
• The WarZEI demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including concurrent, discriminant, and incremental validity.
• The scale effectively captures the heterogeneity and multidimensional nature of war zone stressor exposure.

Conclusions:

• The Warzone Stressor Exposure Index (WarZEI) is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing war zone stressors.
• The WarZEI accounts for both danger-based and nondanger-based traumatic experiences.
• This measure supports a more nuanced understanding of military personnel's psychological exposure in combat zones.