The Clinical Trauma Assessment: Evaluating Sexual Assault Victims in the Emergency Room

This report presents an instrument for clinicians to assess the severity of trauma experienced by victims in the immediate aftermath of sexual assault. The Clinical Trauma Assessment (CTA) was used to rate 19 specific trauma symptoms and global trauma in 314 female sexual assault victims admitted to the emergency room within 72 hr of assault. Factor analysis with oblique rotation yielded a simple structure with 3 common factors: Expressed Emotional Trauma Style, Controlled Emotional Trauma Style, and Cognitive Trauma. Cronbach coefficients alpha and subscale interitem correlations indicated high internal consistency for each factor subscale. The construct validity of the CTA was supported by a multitrait-multimethod matrix. Applications of the CTA include assessment of victims who might otherwise be unable or unwilling to provide self-reports and the need for clinicians to recognize the distress of victims who show few overt signs of trauma.