DEVELOPMENT OF TERROR-RELATED TRAUMA SCALE AS A CULTURALLY SENSITIVE TOOL FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF TERROR-RELATED TRAUMA

Abstract

Nigeria, a country in Africa, has experienced and continues to experience various forms of armed 
conflict, including banditry, Boko Haram insurgency, farmers–herders clashes, and other forms of 
organized violence. One of the major consequences of these conflicts is terror-related trauma, 
which manifests in diverse psychological symptoms among affected populations. This study aimed 
to develop a culturally relevant Terror-Related Trauma Scale suitable for use by practitioners and 
researchers in assessing trauma symptoms among war survivors in Nigeria. A mixed-method 
research design was employed, and data were collected from 230 participants, comprising males 
and females across different age groups. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to 
examine the construct validity of the scale. Preliminary analyses confirmed the adequacy of the 
data for factor analysis (Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin = .846; Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity, p < .001). The 
initial EFA of 23 items revealed a two-factor structure, supported by eigenvalues and the scree 
plot. Three items that failed to load adequately were removed, and a second-phase EFA conducted 
on the remaining 20 items yielded a clear and interpretable two-factor solution with minimal cross
loadings. Reliability analysis indicated good internal consistency for the final 20-item scale, with 
a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .86. Item–total statistics further showed that all Terror-Related 
Trauma Scale has satisfactory psychometric properties, supporting its use for research and applied 
psychological assessment in conflict-affected settings in Nigeria.