Development and Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation of a Measure of Collective Trauma and Collective Grief In the MENA Region

Background and Purpose:

Communities across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are exposed to chronic conflict, instability, and collective loss, yet the field lacks culturally grounded instruments to assess shared emotional experiences such as collective trauma and collective grief. Existing measures focus primarily on individual-level pathology, limiting the ability to capture community-level distress. This study aims to develop and evaluate a novel psychometric instrument assessing collective trauma and collective grief and to examine their relationship with indirect exposure to distressing stimuli.

Methods:

This study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The instrument was newly developed based on relevant literature, underwent face validation, and was pilot tested prior to distribution. Participants (N = 130) were recruited using convenience sampling from diverse backgrounds across the MENA region. The survey included Likert-scale items assessing collective trauma, collective grief, and indirect exposure (e.g., news consumption, social media, graphic imagery, and sirens). Missing data were minimal and were handled using item mean imputation. Quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics, internal consistency reliability, and Pearson correlation analyses.

Results:

Participants reported high levels of exposure (M = 3.93, SD = 1.07), collective trauma (M = 3.86, SD = 1.05), and collective grief (M = 4.07, SD = 0.90), with collective grief demonstrating the highest levels. Internal consistency was acceptable for exposure (α = .80), strong for collective trauma (α = .92), and strong for collective grief (α = .88). Correlation analyses revealed strong positive associations between exposure and collective trauma (r = .72), exposure and collective grief (r = .61), and between collective trauma and collective grief (r = .78).

Conclusions and Implications:

Findings provide preliminary psychometric support for a novel, culturally grounded measure of collective trauma and collective grief in the MENA region. Results underscore the significant psychological impact of indirect exposure and highlight the importance of assessing shared emotional experiences beyond individual-level frameworks. The proposed instrument has important implications for social work research and practice, enabling more accurate assessment of community-level distress and informing culturally responsive interventions and policy in conflict-affected settings. This study is ongoing, and continued data collection is expected to yield a larger sample that will allow for more robust psychometric evaluation, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.