Secondary Trauma Impact Scale: Development and Initial Validation

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Work
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Existing instruments for secondary traumatic stress (STS) do not adequately measure distress and impairment.
• There is a need for a reliable tool to assess the multifaceted impact of work-related secondary trauma.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a new instrument, the Secondary Trauma Impact Scale (STIS), for measuring distress and impaired functioning due to secondary traumatic stress.
• To assess the reliability and validity of the STIS in a sample of social workers.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Secondary Trauma Impact Scale (STIS), a six-item screening measure.
• Secondary analysis of data from 577 master's-level social workers.
• Evaluation of the STIS for reliability, factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity.

Main Results:

• The STIS demonstrated strong reliability and validity.
• Factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity were supported by the secondary analysis.
• The scale effectively measures distress and impairment across social, occupational, familial, sexual, psychological, and physical domains.

Conclusions:

• The STIS is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring distress and impairment related to secondary traumatic stress.
• This scale will improve the estimation of STS prevalence, identification of risk factors, and evaluation of interventions.
• The STIS provides a precise tool for social workers and organizations to understand and address the impact of secondary trauma.