Comparing posttraumatic stress disorders' symptom structure between treatment-seeking sample and community sample: Confirmatory factor analysis of Harvard trauma questionnaire

• Main Authors: Mordeno, Imelu G., Nalipay, Ma. Jenina N., Untalan, John Hermes C., Decatoria, Johnny B.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2012
• Subjects: Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11683
• Institution: De La Salle University

The discourse of latent structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been extensive in trauma literature. Although findings have been consistent in rejecting DSM-IV-TR's three-factor model, alternative models are still fervently argued. This study contributes to the discussion by examining and comparing PTSD factor structure of the three most validated models-numbing model (King et.al., 2011) - and determining if these are generalizable across treatment-seeking (n=526) and non-treatment-seeking (n=250) Filipinos who experienced and witnessed varied trauma events. Results showed that all models achieved excellent fit, with dysphoric arousal model slightly fitting better than numbing and dysphoria models in both treatment-seeking and non-treatment-seeking sample. SEries of invariance testing however indicated that although dysphoric arousal model fits significantly better than dysphoria model, it did not significantly differ from numbing model. Results revealed that aside from the factor loadings, the two groups are ninivariant in all parameters. Treatment-seeking sample had larger intercepts, factor variances and covariances, and factor means than non-treatment-seeking group. This strongly contributes to the literature by showing how this type of grouping (treatment-seeking vs.non-treatment-seeking) moderates PTSD latent structure.