Abstract
The study examined and compared the latent structure of posttraumatic growth (PTG) based on three proposed models: 1-factor, 3-factor and 5-factor models in order to (1) find out the factor structure that has the best fit for the Filipino sample; (2) find out the factor structure that best represents PTG in the immediate aftermath of a flash flood disaster; and (3) examine the generalizability of the best-fitted model across gender. A sample of 895 survivor-respondents answered the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) within a month after a deadly flash flood. Based on the best-fitted model, a multi-group comparison between male and female was conducted to determine gender generalizability. Results showed that the 3-factor model comprising of Changes in Self/Positive Life Attitudes, Philosophy of Life, and Relating to Others fitted best in contrast to the other two models. The data also demonstrated the generalizability of the 3-factor model across gender, with invariance in factor loadings, item intercepts, factor variance and covariance, and factor means.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Bentler, P. M. (2004). EQS 6 structural equation program manual. CA: Multivariate Software.
Brunet, J., McDonough, M., Hadd, V., Crocker, P. R. E., & Sabiston, C. M. (2010). The posttraumatic growth inventory: an examination of the factor structure and invariance among breast cancer survivors. Psycho-Oncology, 19, 830–838.
Bryant, R. A., O’Donnell, M. L., Creamer, M., McFarlane, A. C., Clark, C. R., & Silove, D. (2010). The psychiatric sequelae of traumatic injury. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 312–320.
Bryant, R. A., Brooks, R., Silove, D. M., Creamer, M., O’Donnell, M., & McFarlane, A. (2011a). Peritraumatic dissociation mediates the relationship between acute panic and chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49(5), 346–351.
Bryant, R. A., Friedman, M. J., Spiegel, D., Robert, R., & Strain, J. (2011b). A review of acute stress disorder in DSM-5. Depression and Anxiety, 28, 802–817.
Byrne, B. M. (2006). Structural equation modeling with EQS: Basic concepts, applications and programming (2nd ed.). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Cryder, C. H., Kilmer, R. P., Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2006). An exploratory study of posttraumatic growth in children following a natural disaster. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76(1), 65–69.
Dekel, S., Ein-Dor, T., & Solomon, Z. (2012). Posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic distress: a longitudinal study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 4(1), 94–101.
Grimm, S. D., Church, A. T., Katigbak, M. S., & Reyes, J. A. S. (1999). Self-described traits, values, and moods associated with individualism, and collectivism Testing I-C theory in an individualistic (U.S.) and a collectivistic (Philippine) culture. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30(4), 466–500.
Hafstad, G. S., Kilmer, R. P., & Gil-Rivas, V. (2011). Posttraumatic growth among Norwegian children and adolescents exposed to the 2004 tsunami. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(2), 130–138.
Helgeson, V. S., Reynolds, K. A., & Tomich, P. L. (2006). A meta-analytic review of benefit-finding and growth. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 797–816.
Ho, S. M., Chan, C. L., & Ho, R. T. (2004). Posttraumatic growth in Chinese cancer survivors. Psycho-Oncology, 13(6), 377–389.
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Jaarsma, T. A., Poola, G. B., Sandermana, R., & Ranchora, A. V. (2006). Psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the posttraumatic growth inventory among cancer patients. Psycho-Oncology, 15, 911–920.
Kilmer, R. P., & Gil-Rivas, V. (2010). Exploring posttraumatic growth in children impacted by hurricane Katrina: correlates of the phenomenon and developmental considerations. Child Development, 81(4), 1211–1227.
Koucky, E., Galovski, T., & Nixon, R. (2012). Acute stress disorder: conceptual issues and treatment outcomes. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 19(3), 437–450.
Kunst, M. K. (2010). Peritraumatic distress, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and posttraumatic growth in victims of violence. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23(4), 514–518.
Lamela, D., Figueiredo, B., Bastos, A., & Martins, H. (2014). Psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the posttraumatic growth inventory short form among divorced adults. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 30(1), 3–14.
Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2004). Positive change following trauma and adversity: a review. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17, 11–21.
Linley, P. A., Andrews, L., & Joseph, S. (2007). Confirmatory factor analysis of the posttraumatic growth inventory. United Kingdom Journal of Loss and Trauma, 12, 321–332.
Lowe, S. R., Manove, E. E., & Rhodes, J. E. (2013). Posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth among low-income mothers who survived hurricane Katrina. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 81(5), 877–889.
Maercker, A., & Langner, R. (2001). Posttraumatic personal growth: validations of Germanversions of two questionnaires. Diagnostica, 47, 153–162.
Meredith, W. (1993). Measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance. Psychometrika, 58, 525–543.
Morris, B. A., Shakespeare-Finch, J., Rieck, M., & Newbury, J. (2005). Multidimensional nature of posttraumatic growth in an Australian population. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18, 575–585.
Nishi, D., Matsuoka, Y., & Kim, Y. (2010). Posttraumatic growth, posttraumatic stressdisorder and resilience of motor vehicle accidentsurvivors. BioPsychoSocial Medicine, 4(7).
Osei-Bonsu, P. E., Weaver, T. L., Eisen, S. V., & Vander Wal, J. S. (2012). Posttraumatic growth inventory: factor structure in the context of DSM-IV traumatic events. International Scholarly Research Network Psychiatry, 2012, 1–9.
Powell, S., Rosner, R., Butollo, W., Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2003). Posttraumatic growth after war: a study with former refugees and displaced people in Sarajevo. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 59, 71–83.
Raftery, A. E. (1995). Bayesian model selection in social research. Sociological Methodology, 25, 111–163.
Satorra, A., & Bentler, P. M. (2010). Ensuring positiveness of the scaled difference chi-square test statistic. Psychometrika, 75, 243–248.
Schroevers, M. J., & Teo, I. (2008). The report of posttraumatic growth in Malaysian cancer patients: Relationships with psychological distress and coping strategies. Psycho-Oncology, 17, 1239–1246.
Shakespeare-Finch, J., & Enders, T. (2008). Corroborating evidence of posttraumatic growth. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 21(4), 421–424.
Shigemoto, Y., & Poyrazli, S. (2013). Factors related to posttraumatic growth in U.S. and Japanese college students. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 5(2), 128–134.
Swickert, R. J., Hittner, J. B., & Foster, A. (2012). A proposed mediated path between gender and posttraumatic growth: the roles of empathy and social support in a mixed-age sample. Scientific Research, 3(12A), 1142–1147.
Taku, K., Cann, A., Calhoun, L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G. (2008). The factor structure of the posttraumatic growth inventory: a comparison of five models using confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 21(2), 158–164.
Taku, K., Cann, A., Calhoun, L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G. (2009). Intrusive versus deliberate rumination in posttraumatic growth across US and Japanese samples. Anxiety, Stress and Coping: An International Journal, 22(2), 129–136.
Tang, C. S. (2006). Positive and negative postdisaster psychological adjustment among adult survivors of the Southeast Asian earthquake-tsunami. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 61, 699–705.
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1995). Trauma and transformation: Growing in the aftermath of suffering. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The Posttraumatic growth inventory: measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 455–471.
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15, 1–18.
Teixeira, R. J., & Pereira, M. G. (2013). Growth and cancer caregiving experience: psychometric properties of the Portuguese Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Families, Systems & Health, 31(4), 382–395.
Triandis, H. C. (2001). Individualism-collectivism and personality. Journal of Personality, 69(6), 907–924.
Vishnevsky, T., Cann, A., Calhoun, L. G., Tedeschi, R. G., & Demakis, G. J. (2010). Genderdifferences in self-reported posttraumatic growth: a meta-analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34(1), 110–120.
Weiss, T., & Berger, R. (2006). Reliability and validity of a Spanish version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Research on Social Work Practice, 16(2), 191–199.
Weiss, T., & Berger, R. (Eds.). (2010). Posttraumatic growth and culturally competent practice: Lessons learned from around the globe. Hoboken: Wiley.
Yorulmaz, H., Bayraktar, S., & Ozdilli, K. (2010). Posttraumatic growth in chronic kidney failure disease. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 2313–2319.
Zoellner, T., Rabe, S., Karl, A., & Maercker, A. (2008). Posttraumatic growth in accident survivors: openness and optimism as predictors of its constructive or illusory sides. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(3), 245–263.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mordeno, I.G., Nalipay, M.J.N., Alfonso, M.K.S. et al. Examining the Latent Structure of Posttraumatic Growth Between Male and Female Survivors in the Immediate Aftermath of a Flash Flood Disaster. Curr Psychol 35, 587–594 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9325-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9325-y