Page Last Updated: September 19, 2025

DSM5 Severity Acute Stress or PTSD🔗

Table Name:
pex_bm_str__ptsd
Full Name:
National Stressful Events Survey- PTSD Short Scale/Acute Stress Disorder
Construct:
PTSD/Acute Stress Disorder Symptom Severity
Data Warning â–¸

Consideration of Mental Health Symptoms Experienced During Pregnancy
The co-occurrence of psychiatric symptoms and substance use during pregnancy is well-documented (Massey et al., 2011, Massey et al., 2012). Phenotypic risk in birthing parents may affect offspring neurodevelopment through both prenatal and postnatal mechanisms, beyond direct exposure alone (Estabrook et al., 2016, Massey et al., 2016, Massey et al., 2018). These factors may confound associations between exposures and neuroimaging or neurodevelopmental outcomes, but they also represent malleable targets for prevention and early intervention. When possible, incorporating parental mental health symptoms as covariates offers a robust strategy to account for these confounding influences.

Administration & Quality Control🔗

Child Specific No
Respondent Pregnant Participant, Birth Parent, or Primary Caregiver
Administration Self-administered in-person or remote
Visits V01, V02, V03
Completion Time 3 min
Quality Control
  • Checks for missing data based on counts for items completed by each participant
  • Verification of scoring accuracy
  • Summary statistics to examine item-level frequencies and total scores
  • Review of response distributions for potential outliers

Instrument Details🔗

The HBCD Severity of Posttraumatic/Acute Stress Symptoms measure was developed to assess the severity of PTSD and acute stress symptoms following a traumatic event (for individuals aged 18 and older). It combines items from the following National Stressful Events Surveys into a single 10-item assessment for the HBCD study:

Future publications should note that this measure combines NSESSS-PTSD and NSESSS-Acute Stress Disorder.

Questionnaire prompt/instructions:

People sometimes have problems after extremely stressful events or experiences. How much have you been bothered during the PAST SEVEN (7) DAYS by each of the following problems that occurred or became worse after an extremely stressful event/experience?


HBCD Modification Details â–¸

In the HBCD study, a ‘Decline to answer’ option was added to all items. A ‘Don’t know’ option was also available early in data collection, but was later removed.

Scoring Procedures â–¸

These scales assess trauma-related stress symptoms but do not distinguish between PTSD and Acute Stress Disorder. Researchers are encouraged to review individual item content to determine which scale best aligns with their research objectives. Each item is scored on a scale from 0 to 4. Total scores are calculated by summing the item responses.

Scoring Rules:
  • If 3 or more items on a scale are left unanswered, a total score is not computed.
  • If 1 or 2 items are left unanswered, a prorated total score is calculated using the formula:

    • \[ \text{Prorated Score} = \left( \frac{\text{Sum of answered items}}{\text{Number of items answered}} \right) \times \text{Total number of items} \]

The result is rounded to the nearest whole number.

References🔗

Estabrook, R., Massey, S. H., Clark, C. A. C., Burns, J. L., Mustanski, B. S., Cook, E. H., O’Brien, T. C., Makowski, B., Espy, K. A., & Wakschlag, L. S. (2016). Separating family-level and direct exposure effects of smoking during pregnancy on offspring externalizing symptoms: Bridging the behavior genetic and behavior teratologic divide. Behavior Genetics, 46(3), 389–402. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-015-9762-2

Massey, S. H., Lieberman, D. Z., Reiss, D., Leve, L. D., Shaw, D. S., & Neiderhiser, J. M. (2011). Association of clinical characteristics and cessation of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use during pregnancy. The American Journal on Addictions. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1521-0391.2010.00110.x

Massey, S. H., Mroczek, D. K., Burns, J. L., Clark, C. A. C., Espy, K. A., & Wakschlag, L. S. (2018). Positive parenting behaviors in women who spontaneously quit smoking during pregnancy: Clues to putative targets for preventive interventions. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 67, 18–24.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2018.02.003

Massey, S. H., Neiderhiser, J. M., Shaw, D. S., Leve, L. D., Ganiban, J. M., & Reiss, D. (2012). Maternal self concept as a provider and cessation of substance use during pregnancy. Addictive Behaviors, 37(8), 956–961. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.04.002

Massey, S. H., Reiss, D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Leve, L. D., Shaw, D. S., & Ganiban, J. M. (2016). Maternal personality traits associated with patterns of prenatal smoking and exposure: Implications for etiologic and prevention research. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 53, 48–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2015.11.010