TITLE:
Development and Evaluation of the Posttraumatic Growth Status Inventory
AUTHORS:
Tatjana Alexander, Rainer Oesterreich
KEYWORDS:
Posttraumatic Growth; Coping; Resources; Inventory
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.4 No.11,
November
27,
2013
ABSTRACT: Posttraumatic growth reflects beneficial
psychological processes in persons with traumatic experiences. Existing
measures of growth were criticized due to their retrospective self-report
format that may cause biases in capturing the growth processes in individuals
with several specific kinds of trauma, such as physical or psychological disabilities
of close family members, bereavement and some others kinds of traumatic
experience. In this case, the feelings of guilt may prevent the persons from
being aware of the favorable personal changes. The objective of this study was
to develop and to evaluate an alternative measuring instrument that uses a
status quo response format instead of retrospective items and covers additional
areas of growth-related changes. The samples comprised 440 adult persons with
traumatic experience, including 181 parents of children with mental and/or
physical disabilities. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a
7-factors solution, corresponding to the following subscales: Relationships to
Others, New Possibilities, Personal Strength, Appreciation of Life, Spiritual
Changes, Generativity, and Openness. Results showed good reliability and
concurrent validity. The PGSI is recommended particularly for use in
longitudinal studies as well as in samples of persons whose trauma relates to a
severe psychological or physical disability in their families.