Abstract
Objective: This study aims to translate and validate the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) into the Arabic language with a population of medical students at two different universities in Saudi Arabia. Method: Fifty-six male and female medical students were tested during different periods of quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic using both original and translated versions of the IESR. Results: The Arabic IES-R has acceptable internal consistency, with the following alpha coefficients: Intrusion (Cronbach's a= 0.85), Avoidance (Cronbach's a= 0.75), Hyperarousal (Cronbach's a= 0.74), and total IES-R score (Cronbach's alpha= 0.88), all of which were significant (p-value< 0.01). The test-retest reliability of the Arabic scale examined with the same sample is high, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.75 to 0.81 (p-value< 0.01) for the three subscales and total score. The reliability-parallel form method of the Arabic IES-R with the original IES-R indicates excellent consistency between the two scales, with significant (p-value< 0.01) intraclass correlation ranging from 0.80 to 0.89 for its three subclasses and total score. Finally, a principal components analysis using Varimax rotation was performed with the 3-factor forced solution explains 50.5% of the variance and generated an intrusion factor (items 1,3,6,9,14,15), avoidance factor (items 5,8,11,17,22), and hyperarousal factor (items 2,4,10,12,16,18,19). Conclusion: The Arabic IES-R has proven to be a reliable and valid measure for posttraumatic stress symptoms in our sample of medical students in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Category: Psychiatry, psychometry, community.