Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Psychology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Samantha Coyle-Eastwick

Committee Member

Jeremy K. Fox

Committee Member

Sally Grapin

Committee Member

Kelly Clark

Abstract

Exposure to potentially traumatic events is common among adolescents and emerging adults. While outcomes to trauma exposure may vary, development of maladaptive symptoms and disorders, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is of great concern to clinicians, researchers, and advocates for youth. However, recent research has identified that existing trauma measures and the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition Text Revision criterion for event exposure for PTSD, Criterion A, fail to address specific types of events and experiences that may elicit post-traumatic stress responses. Subsequently, this dissertation aimed to review the existing literature regarding trauma and how it is measured in adolescents and emerging adults, with the goal of developing a new measure for trauma assessment in this population. The Trauma in Emerging Adults and Adolescents Measure (TEAAM) was drafted based on extant measures and literature suggesting the importance of different types of events (e.g., bullying, discrimination) and facets of events (e.g., frequency of events and subjective distress). The current study hypothesized that the TEAAM would show discriminant validity in its associations with PTSD symptoms and disparate constructs (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress); that it would demonstrate adequate specificity and sensitivity in predicting PTSD diagnosis; and that it would show appropriate test-retest reliability. In Study 1, 10 professionals in psychology were asked to review and suggest recommendations for improving the TEAAM. In Study 2, the modified TEAAM and additional measures were administered to a sample of 263 undergraduate students from a public northeastern university (128 of whom completed the TEAAM again two to four weeks later). Many of the TEAAM metrics demonstrated appropriate discriminant validity in its associations with PTSD symptoms. Similarly, several TEAAM metrics showed sensitivity and specificity in predicting PTSD diagnosis. Finally, the TEAAM showed appropriate test-retest reliability. Clinical implications of the TEAAM are discussed, along with potential avenues for future research.

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