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The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Factor Structure and Invariance in a Sample of Breast Cancer Patients and in a Non-Clinical Sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2016

Catarina Ramos ,
Isabel Leal ,
Ana Lúcia Marôco  and
Richard G. Tedeschi
Catarina Ramos*
Affiliation:
ISPA - University Institute (Portugal)
Isabel Leal
Affiliation:
ISPA - University Institute (Portugal)
Ana Lúcia Marôco
Affiliation:
ISPA - University Institute (Portugal)
Richard G. Tedeschi
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte (USA)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Catarina Ramos. WJCR - William James Center for Research, ISPA - University Institute. Rua Jardim do Tabaco, 34. 1149–041. Lisbon (Portugal). E-mail: aramos@ispa.pt
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Abstract

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) is frequently used to assess positive changes following a traumatic event. The aim of the study is to examine the factor structure and the latent mean invariance of PTGI. A sample of 205 (Mage = 54.3, SD = 10.1) women diagnosed with breast cancer and 456 (Mage = 34.9, SD = 12.5) adults who had experienced a range of adverse life events were recruited to complete the PTGI and a socio-demographic questionnaire. We use Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test the factor-structure and multi-sample CFA to examine the invariance of the PTGI between the two groups. The goodness of fit for the five-factor model is satisfactory for breast cancer sample (χ2(175) = 396.265; CFI = .884; NIF = .813; RMSEA [90% CI] = .079 [.068, .089]), and good for non-clinical sample (χ2(172) = 574.329; CFI = .931; NIF = .905; RMSEA [90% CI] = .072 [.065, .078]). The results of multi-sample CFA show that the model fit indices of the unconstrained model are equal but the model that uses constrained factor loadings is not invariant across groups. The findings provide support for the original five-factor structure and for the multidimensional nature of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Regarding invariance between both samples, the factor structure of PTGI and other parameters (i.e., factor loadings, variances, and co-variances) are not invariant across the sample of breast cancer patients and the non-clinical sample.

Keywords

breast cancerconfirmatory factor analysismeasurement invarianceposttraumatic growth inventory
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 19 , 2016 , E64
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2016 

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