Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C-R)

• Published in: Asia-Pacific journal of public health Vol. 27; no. 2; pp. NP1310 - NP1320
• Main Authors: Lau, Joseph T. F., Yeung, Nelson C. Y., Yu, Xiaonan, Zhang, Jianxin, Mak, Winnie W. S., Lui, Wacy W. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-03-2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; China; Depression - diagnosis; Depression - epidemiology; Disasters; Earthquakes; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Family Relations; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Male; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Resilience, Psychological; Social Support; China; Chinese; posttraumatic growth; adolescents; validation; Sichuan earthquake
• ISSN: 1010-5395; 1941-2479
• DOI: 10.1177/1010539513479967

We investigated the psychometric properties of the modified 8-item Chinese version of the Revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C-R) among 3256 adolescents in Chengdu, China, after the Sichuan Earthquake in 2008. The PTGI-C-R showed good reliability (Cronbach’s α = .86; composite reliability = 0.87). A single factor was extracted by exploratory factor analysis and confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis in 2 randomly split half subsamples. Multigroup analyses showed that the single-factor structure was stable across gender groups and age groups (age <15 years and ≥15 years). The PTGI-C-R was negatively correlated with depression (r = −0.21) and positively correlated with resilience, social support, and perceived importance of health, family, and friendship (r ranged from 0.34 to 0.40). Our findings support the idea that the PTGI-C-R is a reliable and valid measure of posttraumatic growth among Chinese adolescents having experienced a natural disaster. Validation of the scale in the context of other traumatic events is warranted.