Developing the Shame and Guilt Scale in Secondary Traumas

The current research aimed to develop a scale measuring feelings of shame and guilt in secondary traumas. In addition, the current research's another aimed to test the mediating role of negative emotion in the relationship between psychological resilience and feelings of shame and guilt in secondary traumas. The study was conducted in three stages, and all consist of people from different provinces of Türkiye. There were 118 participants from the general population in the pilot study, 310 participants in Study 1, and 414 participants in Study 2. The age range of the participants in all groups is 18-50. The data obtained from the entire research were analyzed in SPSS and AMOS analysis programs. The Shame and Guilt Scale in Secondary Traumas, Brief Psychological Resilience Scale, Toronto Empathy Scale, Trait Shame and Guilt Scale, and Positive and Negative Emotion Scales were used in the study. The Shame and Guilt Scale in Secondary Traumas consists of 2 sub-dimensions, "escape" and "facilities", and a total of 8 items. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale is .84 for the escape sub-dimension; it was calculated as .91 for the facilities sub-dimension and .86 for the overall scale. As a result, it can be said that the Shame and Guilt Scale in Secondary Traumas is a valid and reliable measurement tool. In line with the second aimed of this research, it was observed that negative emotions had a full mediator role in the relationship between the feelings of shame and guilt experienced in the general population in secondary traumas and psychological resilience.