Post Traumatic Growth: Focus on Concepts and Cross-Cultural Measurement Issues

Abstract

The concept of post-traumatic growth (PTG) has attracted attention from researchers and practitioners in traumatology in the past decades. Despite its popularity, there are still some resolved issues related to this concept. This chapter will first discuss two controversial issues related to PTG. The first issue regarding whether PTG is a real phenomenon or it is just an illusion constructed by theorists and trauma victims. A second and related issue is whether PTG should be regarded as a variable affecting post-trauma outcomes or it should be regarded as an outcome itself. This second issue has important practical implication. If PTG is a predictor of post-trauma adjustments, it is important to clarify whether self-perception of PTG would reduce or increase post-trauma psychopathology. Nowadays, no consensus has been researched regarding the above issues. This chapter will next address the assessment issues related to PTG. We will introduce our research related to the establishment of the Chinese version of Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory and use it as an example to address the content and factor invariance of the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory across cultures.