Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Psychology, Applied, Psychology, event centrality, autobiographical memory, psychometric properties, PTSD, depression, AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY, TRAUMA CENTRALITY, DISORDER, INTEGRATION, EXPOSURE, IDENTITY, PREVALENCE, 12-MONTH, VIOLENCE, 1701 Psychology, Social Psychology, 3101 Biochemistry and cell biology, 3202 Clinical sciences, 3209 Neurosciences

Abstract:

Event centrality is defined as the extent to which the memory of a traumatic event forms a reference point for personal identity and the attribution of meaning to other experiences in a person’s life. The current study investigated the psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the Centrality of Event Scale (CES; Berntsen & Rubin, 2006) and its relation with symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, exposure to traumatic events as defined by DSM-5 trauma criterion A, and negative life events in a student sample (N = 967). An underlying structure of one factor was found. This factor structure was replicated in two additional independent samples. High internal consistency was found for a 6-item CES. CES scores were positively related to symptoms of PTSD and depression, to the DSM-5 trauma criterion A, and the number of negative life events. The CES made a unique contribution to the explained variance in PTSD symptoms when controlling for depression. However, CES scores were unrelated to depression when controlling for PTSD symptoms, suggesting that event centrality might be more typically related to PTSD, and less to depression.