Objective assessment of secondary trauma.

This study reports on the continued development of the Secondary Trauma Scale (STS) and the establishment of cutoff scores. Cutoff scores are unavailable for existing secondary trauma scales. Participants were 118 young adult volunteers who reported having had close and continued exposure to a person or persons who had been traumatized. Sub-samples were drawn from the initial pool, and these sub-samples showed mild to severe anxiety and depression along with problematic levels of intrusion and avoidance. STS scores of 38 or higher were associated with mild to severe anxiety and depression and with problematic intrusion and avoidance symptoms. It was suggested that at STS scores of 45 or higher, clinicians and researchers should be particularly concerned. The STS demonstrated strong psychometric characteristics and was significantly correlated with known measures of emotional distress and dissociation.