Desarrollo de la Escala de Actitudes Disfuncionales Traumáticas (EADT) para víctimas de terrorismo

Abstract

Introduction and objectives. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most common psychological disorder in victims of terrorism. Cognitive models of PTSD postulate that dysfunctional attitudes play a fundamental role in its etiology, maintenance, and treatment. The objective of this study was to develop a self-report instrument to assess traumatic dysfunctional attitudes typical of victims of terrorism: the Traumatic Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (EADT by its original Spanish acronym). Materials and method. The EADT items were extracted from 480 recorded hours of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy administered to 59 victims of terrorism with PTSD and after an analysis of items’ content and intelligibility by a group of psychologists. A preliminary 84-item version was administered to a sample of 253 victims of terrorism along with measures of PTSD, depression, and depressive dysfunctional attitudes. Results. A series of factorial and reliability analyses on the preliminary version allowed one to arrive at a definitive version composed of 34 items and three correlated factors: dangerous world, negative view of society and the human being, and chronicity of distress. The psychometric analyses of the definitive version revealed good evidence concerning the internal structure of the test, score internal consistency, the differentiation of known groups, and the relationships with conceptually related constructs. Conclusions. The EADT is a simple instrument whose scores have good psychometric properties and can be useful to assess, both in research and applied contexts, the dysfunctional attitudes that victims of terrorism may present.