title: Psychometric properties of the Questionnaire for Secondary Traumatization.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  During the past several years, there has been a growing interest in the negative effects that providing therapy may have on therapists. Of special interest is a phenomenon called secondary traumatization, which can arise while working with traumatized clients. To develop a simple screening tool for secondary traumatization, a quantitative assessment instrument was constructed using a data-driven approach based on qualitative interviews with affected trauma therapists as well as experienced supervisors in trauma therapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the current study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the newly developed Questionnaire for Secondary Traumatization (FST) acute and lifetime version and to determine the most appropriate scoring procedure.
  
  
  METHODS
  To this end, three independent samples of psychotherapists (n=371), trauma therapists in training (n=80), and refugee counselors (n=197) filled out an online questionnaire battery. Data structure was analyzed using factor analyses, cluster analyses, and reliability analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Factor analyses yielded a six-factor structure for both the acute and the lifetime version with only a small number of items loading on differing factors. Cluster analyses suggested a single scale structure of the questionnaire. The FST total score showed good internal consistencies across all three samples, while internal consistency of the six extracted factors was mixed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With the FST, a reliable screening instrument for acute and lifetime secondary traumatization is now available which is free of charge and yields a sum score for quick evaluation. The six-factor structure needs to be verified with confirmatory factor analyses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weitkamp
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Universitätsmedizin Charité, Berlin, Germany ; Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Judith K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Daniels
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Fionna
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Klasen
keywords: Secondary traumatization; burnout; compassion fatigue; psychometric properties; questionnaire; vicarious traumatization