Abstract
Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains underexplored in Africa, where measurement of potentially traumatic events (PTEs), PTSD symptoms, and their associations may differ from other populations. Objective & Method: We examined the factor structure of PTEs and PTSD symptoms, measured by the Life-Events Checklist-5 and PTSD Checklist-5, respectively, the item-level response patterns in relation to their corresponding factors, the structural and relational aspects of these instruments, and the factors’ associations in clinical samples from Kenya (N = 2,552, μage = 40.49, SD = 11.92) and Uganda (N = 4,497, μage = 38.73, SD = 11.66). Results: In both samples, PTEs were best represented by four factors: sudden death/serious injury, combat/life-threatening experiences, physical/sexual assault, and accidental trauma. PTSD symptoms had a three-factor structure: intrusion/avoidance, alterations in cognition/mood, and alterations in arousal/reactivity. Associations within PTEs and among PTSD-symptoms scores were strong (0.663 < r < 0.959, 95CI = 0.619–1.000), but weaker between them (0.082 < r < 0.250, 95CI = 0.035–0.304). Physical/sexual assault had most of the strongest associations with all PTSD-symptom scores. Conclusions: Our findings support consistent, interpretable structures for PTEs and PTSD symptoms, emphasizing the link between physical and sexual violence with PTSD symptomatology.