Development and validation of the Clinical Aspects of Historical Trauma Questionnaire in Rwandan genocide survivors

Abstract

Historical trauma is a relatively new concept in the literature, and investigations are needed to clarify its clinical aspects and develop instruments to measure its sequelae. The purpose of this study was to develop the Clinical Aspects of Historical Trauma Questionnaire (CAHTQ), which is meant to capture trauma sequelae in different contexts, and provide initial psychometric information. Participants were survivors of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda (N = 261) aged 32–87 years (M = 46.30 years, SD = 11.95) who completed a preliminary version of the CAHTQ, constructed based on theoretical and content-related consideration, as well as the International Trauma Questionnaire, Fatalism Scale, Public Health Depression Questionnaire, Brief Coping Inventory, Forgiveness Questionnaire, and Sentiment of Reconciliation Questionnaire to test the discriminant and convergent validity of the CAHTQ. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to reduce the number of items and extract factors; confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to confirm the measure's dimensionality. The final questionnaire includes 20 items and five subscales. The items demonstrated good internal consistency, Cronbach's α =.91, and the CFA demonstrated a very good fit of the model to the data, χ2(60, N = 261) = 271, CFI =.963 =, TLI =.956, SMRR =.052, RMSEA =.052. The CAHTQ was developed to capture the clinical aspects of historical trauma sequelae. Unlike comparable previously developed instruments, this questionnaire can be used for various historical traumas globally, and its suitability for this purpose will be the focus of future studies.