An Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Vicarious Trauma Scale in a Sample of Licensed Social Workers Elizabeth Aparicio, Lynn M. Michalopoulos, and George J. Unick Vicarious trauma (VT) involves affective distress and shifts in cognitive schemas following secondary exposure to traumatic material. The Vicarious Trauma Scale (VTS) is a brief mea- sure designed to assess distress resulting from such exposure and has potential as a screening tool for VT in practice and educational settings. The current study is the first examination of the psychometric properties of the VTS in a sample of social workers (n = 157) collected in a cross-sectional survey. Results from item response models (IRM) and confirmatory fac- tor analysis (CFA) suggest the VTS has good to excellent psychometric properties and could be a general screening tool for exposure to traumatic material or distressed clients and a mea- sure of the affective and cognitive impact of such exposure. Both CFA and IRM approaches suggest a two-dimensional solution for the VTS, corresponding to cognitive and affective components. Implications for research and applications to practice are discussed. KEY WORDS: factor analysis; item response models; psychometric analysis; social workers; vicarious trauma I n the line of duty, social workers are fre- quently exposed to secondary traumatic mate- rial disclosed by their clients, thereby increasing their risk for developing vicarious trauma (VT; see Lerias & Byrne, 2003, for a review of risk factors associated with VT). Since the term “vicarious traumatization” was introduced by McCann and Pearlman (1990), research on the sec- ondary impact of trauma—particularly among helping professionals who work with clients who have experienced trauma—has demonstrated the potential adverse and long-term effects on mental health, relationships, and worldview (for example, Arnold, Calhoun, Tedeschi, & Cann, 2005; Regehr, Hemsworth, Leslie, Howe, & Chau, 2004; Schauben & Frazier, 1995). Addressing the clinical risks of working with trauma survivors demands our attention (Arnold et al., 2005), both for the clinicians’ sake and to help ensure ethical, high-quality treatment for clients (Harrison & Westwood, 2009). Previous studies have focused on a wide range of mental health providers; how- ever, the current study is related specifically to VT in social workers. Although VT seems an impor- tant construct related to social work, few studies of VT in social workers exist (for example, Adams, Matto, & Harrington, 2001). This study seeks to examine the psychometric properties and practical utility of the Vicarious Trauma Scale (VTS) (Vrklevski & Franklin, 2008), a brief measure of VT, on a community sample of licensed social workers. DEVELOPMENT AND IMPACT OF VICARIOUS TRAUMA VT involves both affective and cognitive compo- nents resulting from chronic and cumulative expo- sure to secondhand traumatic material (see Pearlman & Saakvitne, 1995, for their work on theory related to VT). Without integration of the traumatic material (that is, making meaning of the experience relative to other personal events in one’s history), VT is associated with symptoms similar to those of posttraumatic stress disorder, such as re-experiencing the details and avoidance of the traumatic material, as well as symptoms of depression (Regehr et al., 2004). Furthermore, VT involves cognitive shifts in the social worker’s frame of reference, including disturbances in iden- tity, spirituality, and worldview, as well as changes in self-perception, ego resources, and psychological needs (Canfield, 2005; Pearlman & Saakvitne, 1995). VT can be distinguished from related phe- nomena—such as secondary traumatic stress that doi: 10.1093/hsw/hlt017 © 2013 National Association of Social Workers 199