Posttraumatic growth and depreciation six years after the 2004 tsunami

Figures & data

Table 1. Respondent characteristics, at T1 (%), n = 848.

	%
Gender:
Women	62
Men	38
Age:
16–24	10
25–34	18
35–44	22
45–54	28
≥55	22
Education:
University	50
High school	38
Elementary school	12
Cohabitating	76
Full-time work before
the tsunami	66
Accompanied by children	34

Table 2. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) at T2 according to single exposure and combinations of exposure, mean and standard deviation (SD), n = 848.

		PTG		PTD
Exposure group	n	Mean SD		Mean SD
Tsunami area only	289	22.61	22.69	6.97	10.03
Bereavement	27	36.08	24.81	8.00	9.14
Presence on beach	114	23.80	23.78	9.38	14.72
Life threat	149	36.71	23.62	14.12	16.80
Life threat and beach	149	37.17	23.44	13.51	14.95
Life threat, beach, and severe injury	28	38.19	22.02	15.35	19.67
Life threat, beach and bereavement	68	45.08	24.54	19.32	17.30
Life threat, beach, bereavement, and severe injury	24	42.64	23.62	19.14	15.08
Total	848	31.03	24.63	11.32	14.57

Figure 1. The association between the total score for posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD).

Table 3. Means, standard deviations (SD), Cronbach’s α, and correlations between General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R) at T1 and posttraumatic growth (PTG), and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) at T2.

	Mean	SD	Cronbach’s α	IES-R	PTG	PTD
GHQ-12	2.11	3.43	0.92	0.60	0.29	0.43
IES-R	21.84	18.28	0.95		0.47	0.54
PTG	30.98	24.63	0.96			0.55*
PTD	11.30	14.56	0.94

All correlations are significant for p < 0.05

*The correlation between PTG and PTD is curvilinear.

Table 4. Geometric mean ratio for reporting posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) at T2 according to different types of exposure, and co-variates at T1.

	PTG		PTD
	Geometric mean ratio	95% Cl	Geometric mean ratio	95% Cl
Gender:
Women	1.0		1.0
Men	0.83	0.71–0.95	0.86	0.71–1.04
Age:
>55	1.0		1.0
45–54	1.29*	1.04–1.58	1.36*	1.03–1.80
35–44	1.36**	1.07–1.71	1.53**	1.11–2.10
25–34	1.14	0.91–1.43	1.23	0.91–1.66
16–24	0.97	0.75–1.27	0.93	0.65–1.33
Education:
University	1.0		1.0
High school	1.24**	1.07-1.44	1.39**	1.14–1.70
Elementary school	1.14	0.90-1.44	1.86***	1.36–2.53
Living situation:
Single	1.0		1.0
Cohabitating	1.03	0.88-1.22	1.14	0.91–1.42
Full-time work before the tsunami:
No	1.0		1.0
Yes	0.90	0.77–1.05	0.99	0.80–1.22
Accompanied by children:
No	1.0		1.0
Yes	1.08	0.92–1.28	1.06	0.85–1.32
Exposure group:
Tsunami area only	1.0		1.0
Bereavement	1.70**	1.15–2.51	1.26	0.76–2.10
Presence on beach	1.00	0.80–1.24	1.19	0.89–1.59
Life threat	1.56***	1.28–1.90	2.18***	1.67–2.85
Life threat and beach	1.76***	1.45–2.14	2.18***	1.67-2.83
Life threat, beach, and severe injury	1.92***	1.32–2.79	2.64***	1.56-4.46
Life threat, beach, and bereavement	2.02***	1.56–2.62	3.35***	2.36-4.76
Life threat, beach, bereavement, severe injury	1.89**	1.26–2.83	3.93***	2.24–6.88

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 5. Bayesian pathway analysis with general psychological distress (GHQ-12) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (IES-R), 14 months post-disaster (T1), as mediator variables for the outcome variables, posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD), six years post-disaster (T2). To estimate direct and indirect effects, the three categorized variables gender, age and exposure were used in the statistical models. Significant indirect effect coefficients with 95% confidence interval are presented.

	PTG		PTD
Mediator variable	b*	CI 95 %	b*	CI 95 %
GHQ-12	1.65	1.17-2.13	1.66	1.39-1.92
Indirect effect
GHQ-12	effect coefficient		effect coefficient
Gender/men	1.05	0.25-1.96	1.04	0.26-1.87
Age/25-34	1.66	0.43-3.08	1.64	0.43-2.92
Age/16-24	2.30	0.82-4.00	2.27	0.83-3.77
Exposure
Life threat, beach, and severe injury	2.85	0.67-5.32	2.82	0.67-5.05
Life threat, beach, and bereavement	3.77	2.06-5.76	3.72	2.18-5.39
Life threat, beach, bereavement, severe injury	6.01	3.31-9.13	5.94	3.48-8.59
Mediator variable	b*	CI 95 %	b*	CI 95 %
IES-R	0.54	0.45-0.64	0.42	0.37-0.48
Indirect effect IES-R	effect coefficient		effect coefficient
Gender/men	3.72	2.32-5.24	2.81	1.74-3.95
Exposure
Life threat	6.17	4.13-8.38	4.74	3.21-6.41
Life threat and beach	5.71	3.69-7.93	4.57	3.02-6.20
Life threat, beach and severe injury	8.25	4.60-12.19	6.82	3.92-9.85
Life threat, beach, and bereavement	11.77	8.72-15.09	9.16	6.94-11.52
Life threat, beach, bereavement, severe injury	11.86	7.51-16.60	9.30	6.01-12.80

Results from the complete pathway analyses with indirect, direct and mediating effects have been presented as supplementary material for the article.

* regression coefficient for mediator variables.