Citation

Kilmer RP, Gil-Rivas V, Tedeschi RG, Cann A, Calhoun LG, Buchanan T, Taku K. J. Trauma. Stress 2009; 22(3): 248-253.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/jts.20410

PMID

19462437

PMCID

PMC2827205

Abstract

Posttraumatic growth (PTG; positive change resulting from the struggle with trauma) was examined among children impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C-R) assessed PTG at two time points, 12 (T1) and 22 months (T2) posthurricane. The PTGI-C-R demonstrated good reliability. Analyses focused on trauma-related variables in predicting PTG. Child-reported subjective responses to the hurricane and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) correlated with PTG at T1; however, in the regression, only PTSS significantly explained variance in PTG. At follow-up, T1 PTG was the only significant predictor of PTG. Findings suggest that the PTGI-C-R may assist efforts to understand children's responses posttrauma.

Language: en