Journal article
Psychometric properties of the Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory and measurement equivalence across PTSD treatment and diverse undergraduate samples
Psychological trauma
01/22/2026
DOI: 10.1037/tra0002102
PMID: 41569537
Abstract
Research demonstrates that oppression can produce symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but traditional trauma assessments do not account for the impacts of oppression. This study addressed this gap by establishing the dimensionality, measurement equivalence, reliability, and convergent validity of the Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory across two samples.
The samples comprise PTSD treatment study clients (Sample 1;
= 129) and Hispanic-serving institution undergraduate students (Sample 2;
= 227) who completed a series of questionnaires, including the Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory.
Confirmatory item factor analyses for the 25 ordinal Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory items were conducted for each sample. Model fit was unsatisfactory for two initial four-factor solutions: one based on the
fifth edition, PTSD symptom clusters and another based on exploratory factor analyses on a previous sample. Given the very high correlations among the factors, however, we refined the structure into three new factors (
) that yielded acceptable fit after adding four error covariances. Measurement invariance testing revealed three of the 25 items had parameters that differed across samples. Excellent reliability was found for all three factors. A higher order factor appeared plausible but was largely noninvariant across samples. Finally, we provide evidence for convergent validity (with measures of standard PTSD, posttraumatic cognitions, depressive symptoms, psychosocial functioning, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and, to some degree, material hardship).
Our findings strengthen the psychometric evidence supporting this novel measure of oppression-based traumatic stress, an important step in furthering intersectional research on this topic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Psychometric properties of the Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory and measurement equivalence across PTSD treatment and diverse undergraduate samples
- Creators
- Samantha C Holmes - College of Staten IslandLesa Hoffman - University of IowaDarien Himi - College of Staten IslandSandra V Pica - City University of New YorkAmber Calloway - University of PennsylvaniaKatherine A Dondanville - The University of Texas Health Science Center at San AntonioSohayla Elhusseini - Stanford UniversityBrittany Clark-Hall - The University of Texas Health Science Center at San AntonioShannon Wiltsey Stirman - Stanford UniversityMonnica T Williams - University of Ottawa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychological trauma
- DOI
- 10.1037/tra0002102
- PMID
- 41569537
- NLM abbreviation
- Psychol Trauma
- ISSN
- 1942-9681
- eISSN
- 1942-969X
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- Grant note
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Canada Research Chairs Program NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 01/22/2026
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Quantitative Foundations
- Record Identifier
- 9985130237902771
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