A short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory

Abstract

A short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-SF) is described. A sample of 1351 adults who had completed the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) in previous studies provided the basis for item selection. The resulting 10-item form includes two items from each of the five subscales of the original PTGI, selected on the basis of loadings on the original factors and breadth of item content. A separate sample of 186 completed the short form of the scale (PTGI-SF). Confirmatory factor analyses on both data sets demonstrated a five-factor structure for the PTGI-short form (PTGI-SF) equivalent to that of the PTGI. Three studies of homogenous clinical samples (bereaved parents, intimate partner violence victims, and acute leukemia patients) demonstrated that the PTGI-SF yields relationships with other variables of interest that are equivalent to those found using the original form of the PTGI. A final study demonstrated that administering the 10 short-form items in a random order, rather than in the fixed context of the original scale, did not impact the performance of the PTGI-SF. Overall, these results indicate that the PTGI-SF could be substituted for the PTGI with little loss of information.

Keywords:

• posttraumatic growth
• Posttraumatic Growth Inventory
• trauma
• stress
• assessment