Posttraumatic Growth in Patients with Malignant Bone Tumor: Relationships with Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

Aim: Owing to the inadequate data to support the valid instrument for assessing the positive changes among patients<br />with malignant bone tumor, the present study was designed to provide such valid evidence through examining the<br />psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-C) among these patients,<br />and to evaluate the effects of posttraumatic growth on positive and negative symptoms in malignant bone tumor patients.<br />Methods: Potential patients with malignant bone tumor from five tertiary hospitals were admitted to the hospital during<br />the period from January 2013 to October 2017. At the baseline assessment (T1), all patients completed a demographic<br />form, PTGI-C, and Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). After 4 weeks later (T2), all the patients finished<br />PANAS and PTGI-C again, and the PTGI-C was re-administered to patients who were simple randomly selected from<br />the total sample. Results: The PTGI-C exhibited moderate reliability and validity. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the<br />total scale was 0.91. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the five-factor model and the convergent validity results<br />obtained were distinct but correlated. The multiple linear regression analyses showed that posttraumatic growth had<br />a significant prediction on positive affect (F=16.445, p<0.001), accounting for 69.4 % of the variance and as well as<br />the negative affect (F=8.707, p<0.001), accounting for 48.3 % of the variance. Personal strength at T1 was positively<br />associated with positive affect at T2, and more personal strength and spiritual change at T1 were associated with less<br />negative affect at T2. Conclusions: PTGI-C has demonstrated sufficient psychometric properties which indicate that<br />it is appropriate to measure posttraumatic growth in patients with malignant bone tumor. Relating to others, spiritual<br />growth, personal strength and appreciate to life are important factors which contribute to predicting positive affect<br />and negative affect.