Standardization of The Secondary Trauma Questionnaire (STQ) in a Sample of Iranian Warfare Victim's Children

Consequences of war traumatic events are not limited to the victim but often affect significant others in the victim’s environment that named secondary trauma. The purpose of the present study was to investigate some standardization characteristics of the Secondary Trauma Questionnaire (STQ) in Iranian warfare victims’ children.
Among the warfare victims’ children living in Yazd, Esfahan, Shiraz, and Ahvaz studying at Shahed and Isargar Schools, 641 subjects were selected by cluster sampling method. They afterwards answered the Secondary Trauma Questionnaire (STQ), Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS), Mississippi PTSD Scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Finally, the gathered data were analyzed by confirmation factor analysis, Pearson correlation, and independent samples t-test.
The findings revealed that the Farsi version of STQ, similar to the one approved by the developers of this scale, has a one factor structure in Iranian samples. Face and content validity of the STQ were confirmed. It can be said that the STQ has a significant convergent validity with STSS, PTSD, and DASS scales. Investigations on the discriminant validity show that the STQ was able to discriminate the group of subjects with high mental health from those with low mental health. Test-retest reliability and Cronbach alpha of the STQ were 0.78 and .88 respectively.
Regarding the results, it can be concluded that the Farsi version of STQ has a favorable validity and reliability in a sample of Iranian warfare victims’ children and could be used to measure secondary trauma symptoms.