Department of Psychology, University of Rhode Island.
Department of Psychology, University of North Texas.
Psychol Trauma. 2023 Nov;15(8):1238-1247. doi: 10.1037/tra0001235. Epub 2022 May 19.
Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) appears to be a reliable resource for studying clinical populations and accessing hard-to-reach populations. Recent research suggests that MTurk may also be a viable option for military recruitment.
The goal of the current study was to examine the utility of collecting clinical data on military samples recruited via MTurk.
Participants were 535 military veterans ( = 37.45; 71.8% men; 69.5% White) who completed measures assessing trauma and mental health.
Findings indicate that rates of military traumas and mental health diagnoses were higher than published comparisons; posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms were found to be higher than values found in a nationally representative sample, lower than a treatment-seeking sample, and comparable to a MTurk-recruited military sample. Alcohol misuse was found to be higher than both nationally representative and treatment-seeking samples. Psychometric analyses indicated support for convergent validity of measures, and confirmatory factor analysis results demonstrated that empirically supported factor models of PTSD were replicated in the current sample; the hybrid model demonstrated the best fit.
Our findings support the utility of MTurk for collecting clinical data on military samples. Increasing access to and recruitment of military samples is important for advancing the field of military psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
亚马逊的 Mechanical Turk（MTurk）似乎是研究临床人群和接触难以接触人群的可靠资源。最近的研究表明，MTurk 对于军事招募也是一个可行的选择。
本研究的目的是检验通过 MTurk 招募的军事样本收集临床数据的有效性。
参与者是 535 名退伍军人（ = 37.45；71.8%男性；69.5%白人），他们完成了评估创伤和心理健康的量表。
研究结果表明，军事创伤和心理健康诊断的发生率高于已发表的比较；创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）和抑郁症状的发生率高于全国代表性样本，低于治疗寻求样本，与 MTurk 招募的军事样本相当。酒精滥用的发生率高于全国代表性样本和治疗寻求样本。心理计量学分析表明，这些测量的聚合效度得到了支持，验证性因子分析结果表明，在当前样本中复制了 PTSD 的经验支持因素模型；混合模型表现出最佳的拟合度。
我们的研究结果支持 MTurk 在收集军事样本临床数据方面的有效性。增加对军事样本的获取和招募对于推进军事心理学领域至关重要。
