Construction and Initial Validation of the South African Former Detainees' Distress Scale: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

Abstract

The experiences of South African political activists who were subjected to torture and abuse in detention during the apartheid era have often been conceptualised as traumatogenic. Various criticisms have been levelled against the trauma model, including the concern that it inappropriately pathologises persons who have experienced human rights violations. Sequelae to torture and abuse have been more appropriately considered to approximate non-pathological distress. The present study was undertaken to determine the factor structure of former detainees' current distress associated with having been abused in detention. In Stage 1 of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants. The qualitative data that emerged from these interviews were used to form the items of the South African Former Detainees' Distress Scale. In Stage 2, the scale was administered to 148 participants and the data were factor-analysed using principal components analysis with a varimax rotation. Four factors emerged from the analysis: Somatic Problems/Discontent, Emotional Distress, Lack of Acknowledgement and Despondency. These factors are discussed in the context of social developments in present-day South Africa.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bjorklund

D. F.

Cassel

W. S.

Bjorklund

B. R.

Brown

R. D.

Park

C. L.

Ernst

Owen

F. A.

(2000). Social demand characteristics in children's and adults' eyewitness memory and suggestibility: The effect of different interviewers on free recall and recognition. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 14, 421–433.

Bolton

(2003). Assessing depression among survivors of the Rwanda genocide. In Krippner

McLntyre

T. M.

(Eds), The psychological impact of war trauma on civilians: An international perspective (pp. 91–136). Westport, CT, US: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Bouwer

Stein

D. J.

(1998). Survivors of torture presenting at an anxiety disorders clinic: Symptomatology and pharmacotherapy. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186, 316–318.

Bryant

F. B.

Yarnold

P. R.

(2000). Principal components analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In Grimm

L. G.

Yarnold

P. R.

(Eds), Reading and Understanding Multivariate Statistics (pp. 123–141). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.

DeVellis

R. F.

(1991). Scale development: Theory and applications. Applied Social Research Methods Series, 26. Sage Publications: Newbury Park.

Foa

E. B.

Tolin

D. F.

(2000). Comparison of the PTSD Symptom Scale Interview Version and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 13, 181–91.

Foster

Davis

Sandler

(1987). Detention and torture in South Africa: Psychological, legal and historical studies. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Global Information Network (2003). Apartheid compensation suit launched in South Africa. http://www.wbai.org/artman/publish/article_606.php (accessed on 15 July 2003).

Hough

R. L.

Landsverk

J. A.

Stone

J. D.

Jacobsen

G. R.

(1982). Comparison of psychiatric screening questionnaires for primary care patients (Final report for NIMH Contract no. 278-281-0036). National Institutes of Health: Washington, DC.

10.

Horowitz

M. J.

Wilner

Alvarez

(1979). Impact of Event Scale: A measure of subjective stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209–218.

11.

Kagee

(2004). Present concerns of survivors of human rights violations in South Africa. Social Science and Medicine, 59, 625–635.

12.

Kagee

Naidoo

A. V.

(2004). Reconceptualizing the sequelae of political torture: Limitations of a psychiatric paradigm. Transcultural Psychiatry, 11, 46–61.

13.

Kagee

Naidoo

A. V.

van Wyk

(2004). Building Communities of Peace: The South African Experience. Internationaljournal for the Advancement of Counseling, 25, 225–234.

14.

Kingdon

Knight

(2003). The measurement of unemployment when unemployment is high, Unpublished paper, CSAE Working Paper WPS/ 2000.2; http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/resprogs/usam/default.html (accessed on 15 July 2003).

15.

Mollica

R. F.

McLnnes

Sarajlic

(1999). Disability associated with psychiatric comorbidity and health status in Bosnian refugees living in Croatia. JAMA, 282, 433–439.

16.

Palmer

S. C.

Kagee

Coyne

J. C.

DeMichele

(2004). Experience of trauma, distress, and posttraumatic stress disorder among breast cancer patients. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66, 258–264.

17.

Paker

Yuksel

(1992). Psychosocial effects of torture: An empirical study of tortured and non-tortured political prisoners. In Basoglu

(Ed.), Torture and its consequences (pp. 72–82). Cambridge, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press.

18.

Pillay

B. J.

(2000). Providing mental health services to survivors: A KwaZulu-Natal perspective. Ethnicity and Health, 5, 269–272.

19.

Sarraj

E. E.

Punamaki

R. J.

Salmi

Summerfield

(1996). Experiences of torture and ill-treatment and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among Palestinian political prisoners. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 595–606.

20.

Simpson

M. A.

Agger

Jensen

S. B.

Turner

S. W.

Gorst-Unsworth

Jaffa

Hough

Blackwell

R. D.

Weiseth

(1993). Trauma related to torture, detention, and internment. In Wilson

J. P.

Raphael

(Eds), International handbook of traumatic stress syndromes (pp. 667–766). New York: Plenum Press.

21.

Somnier

F. E.

Genefke

I. K.

(1986). Psychotherapy for victims of torture. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 323–329.

22.

Summerfield

(1999). A critique of seven assumptions behind psychological trauma programmes in war-affected areas. Social Science & Medicine, 48, 1449–1462.

23.

Swartz

(1998). Culture and mental health: A southern African view. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.

24.

Young

(1995). The harmony of illusions: Inventing post-traumatic stress disorder. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.