RUB » Bibliotheksportal

Felix Würtz, Simon E. Blackwell, Jürgen Margraf, Marcella Woud

• The Scrambled Sentences Task (SST) is a robust measure of interpretational processes in psychopathology. However, there is little evidence of its utility in measuring dysfunctional appraisals (DAs) of potentially traumatic events. We developed a novel SST for trauma-related DAs and examined its psychometric properties including convergent validity (correlations with PTSD-related symptoms and self-reported DAs), divergent validity (e.g., symptoms of depression and eating disorders), and retest reliability via an online study. Our sample (T1: \(\it N\) = 214, T2: \(\it N\) = 145) included participants who reported a potentially traumatic life event still eliciting distress. We found high correlations between the SST, PTSD-related symptoms (\(\it r\) = .37-.51), and self-report measures of DAs (\(\it r\) = .41-.58), indicating good convergent validity. Internal consistency (split-half = .78-.90) and retest reliability (ICC(3,1) = .73-.81) were also good. However, moderate to large correlations with symptoms of other disorders (\(\it r\) = .17-.58) indicated limited divergent validity. Finally, the SST explained unique variance in PTSD-related symptoms above self-report measures of DAs. The results demonstrate the promise of the SST as a valid and reliable tool to assess DAs in the context of potentially traumatic life events. Further research should investigate the transdiagnostic role of trauma-related DAs in psychopathology and the relationship between the SST and self-report measures of DAs.