The Sexual Assault Symptom Scale: Measuring Self-Reported Sexual Assault Trauma in the Emergency Room

To test the utility of a new self-report measure of trauma in the immediate aftermath of sexual assault, 253 women were interviewed with the 32-item Sexual Assault Symptom Scale (SASS) in a hospital emergency room within 72 hr of assault. Factor analysis with oblique rotation yielded a simple struct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological assessment 1991-03, Vol.3 (1), p.3-8
Main Authors: Ruch, Libby O, Gartrell, John W, Amedeo, Stephanie R, Coyne, Barry J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Emotional Trauma
Human
Medical sciences
Nosology. Terminology. Diagnostic criteria
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Rating Scales
Self-Report
Sex Offenses
Techniques and methods
Test Validity
Victimization
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Summary:To test the utility of a new self-report measure of trauma in the immediate aftermath of sexual assault, 253 women were interviewed with the 32-item Sexual Assault Symptom Scale (SASS) in a hospital emergency room within 72 hr of assault. Factor analysis with oblique rotation yielded a simple structure with 4 common factors: Disclosure Shame, Safety Fears, Depression, and Self-Blame. Cronbach alpha coefficients indicated high internal consistency for each factor subscale. Intercorrelations between factor scores of the victims' self-report symptoms and assessments by crisis workers suggest that the SASS has construct validity, as a multitrait-multimethod matrix demonstrated both convergent and discriminant validity.
ISSN:1040-3590
1939-134X
DOI:10.1037/1040-3590.3.1.3