Psychometric analysis of the Chinese version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory with cancer patients in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: Cancer patients in Hong Kong and Taiwan share traditional Chinese as a written form of language, but each region has its own sociocultural background. This study examined if the four-factor model (self, spiritual, life orientation, and interpersonal) of the Chinese version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-C), developed for Hong Kong cancer survivors, could be applied to cancer survivors in Taiwan.

METHODS: Multisample confirmatory factor analyses (MS-CFA) were used to examine the factorial invariance of the PTGI-C among cancer survivors in Taiwan (n = 217) and Hong Kong (n = 223).

RESULTS: The goodness-of-fit of the four-factor model was satisfactory, χ²(180) = 372.36 (χ²/df = 2.07), goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.90, adjusted GFI (AGFI) = 0.87, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.92, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.91, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.05, Akaike information criterion (AIC) = 492.36. This result suggests that the factor structure of the PTGI-C developed in Hong Kong could be applied to cancer survivors in Taiwan. The internal reliabilities of the 15-item whole scale, as well as all the subscales, were good and similar to those reported previously. Interregion comparison revealed that the Taiwan sample had higher mean 'spiritual' and 'interpersonal' posttraumatic growth subscale scores than the Hong Kong sample.

CONCLUSIONS: The four-factor model of the PTGI-C is invariant among cancer survivors using traditional Chinese as a written form of the language. The differences in the degree of some posttraumatic growth dimensions may be because of differences in cultural factors and in psychosocial support for cancer patients between the two regions.