National Institute for Health and Care Research

Measure

Trauma Memory Quality Questionnaire (TMQQ)

Age range 11 — 18
Completion time 5 minutes
Respondent Self Report
Problem areas
Trauma

Overview

The TMQQ measures characteristics of trauma memories in children and adolescents. It focuses on visual quality, non-visual sensory qualities (e.g. auditory, olfactory, proprioceptive sensations), temporal context, and the verbal accessibility of the memory. The measure is looking in depth at the quality of memories, rather than the quantity.

Scoring & Interpretation

The TMQQ is an 11-item measure assessing the quality of memories of traumatic events. Respondents answer statements such as “My memories of the frightening event are mostly pictures or images” and “I can talk about what happened very easily” using a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 “Don’t agree at all” to 4 “Completely agree”. Item 6 is reverse scored. The sum of all the items is the final score. Higher scores reflect more visual and sensory content, a sense of nowness, and difficulty verbally accessing trauma memories.

Psychometric Properties

Internal Consistency

Internal consistency is acceptable - good, with Cronbach's alpha = .76-.82.

Test-Retest Reliability

Factor Structure

The initial development work ran two prinicipal components analyses on the data but found no agreement. Cronbach alpha and item-total correlations were used to remove five of the original 14 items. An 11-item single-factor was retained (Meiser-Stedman et al., 2007).

Validity

Criterion Validity: Participants with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) scored significantly higher on the TMQQ than participants without ASD. Participants with Post Traumatic Stress Disoder (PTSD) were found to score significantly higher on the TMQQ than participants without PTSD.

Construct Validity The TMQQ was significantly and positively correlated with post-traumatic stress symptoms (as assessed by the Revised Impact of Event Scale, child version (RIES-C).

Measurement Invariance

Access

Copy included in Appendix.  Licensing unclear.

Citation

Meiser-Stedman, R., Smith, P., Yule, W., & Dalgleish, T. (2007). The Trauma Memory Quality Questionnaire: Preliminary development and validation of a measure of trauma memory characteristics for children and adolescents. Memory, 15(3), 271-279. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210701256498

Original Reference

Meiser-Stedman, R., Smith, P., Yule, W., & Dalgleish, T. (2007). The Trauma Memory Quality Questionnaire: Preliminary development and validation of a measure of trauma memory characteristics for children and adolescents. Memory, 15(3), 271-279.

References

  • Reed, J., Meiser-Stedman, R., Dalgleish, T., Goodall, B., Wright, I., Boyle, A., Burgess, A., Murphy, F., Hitchcock, C., Schweizer, S., Travers-Hill, E., Dixon, C., Mul, C., Smith, P., Newby, J., & McKinnon, A. (2024). Trauma memory characteristics and neurocognitive performance in youth exposed to single-event trauma. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 52(6), 997-1008.
  • Reed, J., Taylor, J., Randall, G., Burgess, A., & Meiser‐Stedman, R. (2023). Associations between the trauma memory quality questionnaire and posttraumatic stress symptoms in youth: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 36(1), 31-43.

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