Assessing Interpersonal Trauma in Older Adult Women

Interpersonal traumatic experiences (childhood abuse, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence) are common in older adult women and associated with negative short-term and long-term outcomes. Thus, assessing trauma symptoms is essential to providing adequate services. This article explores challenges of measuring trauma in older women, describes the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (Foa, 1995 Foa , E. B. ( 1995 ) . Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS) manual . Minneapolis, MN : National Computer Systems . [Google Scholar]), and evaluates the appropriateness of this instrument using data from a current study of older adult women. Symptom severity scores did not consistently reflect the experiences of the sample. Eschewing a clinical interview to assess the impact of interpersonal trauma in older adult women may be a mistake.