Assessing Guilt After Traumatic Events

Abstract

Introduction: The assessment of feelings of guilt has become an important area of psychology research, although few specific tools for their evaluation have been designed to date. One of the instruments available is the Trauma-Related Guilt Inventory (TRGI; Kubany & Haynes, 2001 ), which assesses the cognitive and emotional components of the feelings of guilt that arise following traumatic experiences. Method: We analyzed data from a sample of 650 university students aged between 18.0 and 30.6 years (M = 21.71; SD = 2.63), using the TRGI, the Brief Symptom Inventory ( Derogatis, 1993 ), and the Distressing Event Questionnaire ( Kubany, 2001 ). Results: The proposed adaptation of the TRGI to a Spanish population demonstrated more than satisfactory criterion validity. A three-factor model from a confirmatory factor analysis was tested, and the factor structure of the original scale was confirmed by an exceptionally high level of internal validity. Discussion: Our results show that the TRGI is an effective tool for assessing guilt after traumatic life events in the Spanish-speaking context.