Psychometric evaluation of the Simplified Chinese Version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for assessing breast cancer survivors.

PURPOSE: Due to the rapid increase in the number of breast cancer survivors in China, it is important to have a valid instrument to assess their posttraumatic growth. We carried out a study to validate the psychometric testing of the Simplified Chinese Version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-SC) in breast cancer survivors.

METHODS AND SAMPLE: A convenience sampling method was used to collect data from 1227 breast cancer survivors at eight tertiary hospitals and some anticancer groups in Beijing between April 2010 and April 2012. We tested the item discrimination, content validity, construct validity, and internal consistency of the PTGI-SC.

KEY RESULTS: The difficulties of the items ranged from 0.432 to 0.737, and their discrimination correlation coefficients ranged from 0.324 to 0.721. The content validity index of the inventory was 0.98. Five factors were extracted using exploratory factor analysis, and their cumulative contribution was determined to be 68.3%. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis include χ(2)/df=3.912, SRMR = 0.046, RMSEA = 0.055, IFI = 0.932, CFI = 0.932, and Cronbach's α = 0.90.

CONCLUSION: The validity and reliability of the PTGI-SC support its use for evaluating Chinese breast cancer survivors. This reliable and valid inventory can be used in practice to measure PTG in breast cancer survivors and provide information about their psychological adjustment. It can also facilitate further psychological research among Chinese breast cancer survivors.