Dimensional assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder in DSM-5

The present paper describes the development of the National Stressful Events Survey for PTSD-Short Scale (NSESSS-PTSD), a new self-report scale for PTSD that is brief (9 items), free of copyright restrictions, and consistent with DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. Study 1 describes the development of the NSESSS-PTSD scale items, which were reduced from a larger pool of items that were administered to a subsample of individuals with probable DSM-5 PTSD diagnoses from a large national sample. The resultant scale included items from each criterion and demonstrated high internal consistency. Study 2 evaluates the psychometric properties of the NSESSS-PTSD in a trauma-exposed non-clinical sample. Strong psychometric properties were observed in the sample, including convergent validity (through comparison to the DSM-IV Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist), internal consistency, and the presence of a single dominant factor. Limitations of the present studies are discussed and specific recommendations for the next steps in the validation process are provided. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.