Reliability and validity of the stressful life events screening questionnaire among inpatients with severe neuropsychiatric illness

The authors examined the reliability and concurrent validity of a modified version of the Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire (SLESQ) in a sample of 1,517 psychiatric inpatients characterized by serious mental illness. The scale showed a high level of internal consistency as well as a readily interpretable factor structure that differentiated sexual trauma from physical assaults and emotional distress. As well as revealing gender differences, the scale showed statistically significant but generally modest relationships between different aspects of trauma and diverse measures of psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, suicide attempts and self-harm, diminished well-being, functional disability, impaired emotion regulation, and limited experiential acceptance. The study extends prior normative research with the SLESQ based on samples of undergraduates to a large psychiatric sample and presents the first factor analysis of the instrument, lending further support to its clinical utility.