A 20-years+ review of the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ): Psychometric properties and findings
Rebecka Lötvall, Åsa Palmborg, Etzel Cardeña
Abstract
The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual introduced the diagnosis of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) for acute pathological reactions including dissociative ones, following a traumatic event. Various measures of ASD have been developed, with the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ) being one of the most commonly used across the world. This paper systematically covers more than 20 years of research with it and 90 papers in different languages. The main conclusion is that the SASRQ and its translations to other languages have consistently shown convergent, divergent, and predictive validity, besides exhibiting good reliability. We finish the paper by advancing suggestions for future development including the use of a new SASRQ version that follows DSM-5 criteria, evaluating whether distinct items or subscales differentially predict different types of acute- and long-term posttraumatic symptomatology, and assessing its clinical usefulness.