Assessing the underlying dimensionality of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms in Chinese adolescents surviving the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
Abstract
By analyzing data yielded from a sample of Chinese adolescents surviving a high-intensity earthquake, this study investigated the underlying dimensionality of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms. The sample included 743 traumatized middle school students (396 females and 332 males) aged 11-17 years (mean=13.6, SD=1.0). Results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that an intercorrelated seven-factor model comprised of intrusion, avoidance, negative affect, anhedonia, externalizing behaviors, anxious arousal, and dysphoric arousal factors provided a significant better representation of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms than other alternative models. Further analyses indicated that external measures of major depression disorder and panic disorder symptoms displayed unique associations with four PTSD factors. The findings provide further support for the newly proposed seven-factor model of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms, add to very limited empirical knowledge on the latent structure of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms among adolescents, and carry implications for further refinement of the current classifications of PTSD symptoms and further clinical practice and research on posttraumatic stress symptomatology.
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The Chinese version of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 has been validated and is widely used in psychological research.
“The Chinese version of the PCL-5 has been validated and is widely used in psychological research (Li et al., 2019, Wang et al., 2015).”
From Mental health status of medical staff in emergency departments during the Coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic in China (2020) · cites this paper as Wang et al., 2015
In addition to the original English PCL-5, a Swedish version and a Chinese version have been examined.
“In addition to the original English PCL-5, a Swedish version [9] and a Chinese version [10, 11] have also been examined.”
From The German version of the posttraumatic stress disorder checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5): psychometric properties and diagnostic utility (2017) · cites this paper as [11]
The seven-factor Hybrid Model has been found to be the best fitting model.
“However, the seven-factor Hybrid Model has been found to be the best fitting model [5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 18].”
From The German version of the posttraumatic stress disorder checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5): psychometric properties and diagnostic utility (2017) · cites this paper as [11]
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- Authors
- Wang, L., Zhang, L., Armour, C., Cao, C., Qing, Y., Zhang, J., Liu, P., Zhang, B., Wu, Q., Zhao, Z., & Fan, G.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Hebei Normal University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Li
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-04
- Volume
- 31
- Pages
- 90-97
- ISSN
- 0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2092985336
- Cited by
- 137
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 6
- FWCI
- 17.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Repository of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Key Technology Research and Development Program of China (2013BAI08B02)
- Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJZD-EW-L04)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271099, 31471004)
- Outstanding Young Investigator Foundation of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, factor structure, adolescents, Wenchuan earthquake, earthquake survivors, intrusion, avoidance, negative affect, anhedonia, externalizing problems, anxious arousal, dysphoric arousal, major depressive disorder, panic disorder
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Anxiety Disorders, Arousal, Child, China, Major Depressive Disorder, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Panic Disorder, Survivors, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Earthquakes
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