The correlation among posttraumatic stress disorder,posttraumatic growth and earthquake exposure fac-tors in middle school students four years after earthquake / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the influence of exposure factors on posttraumatic stress disorder( PTSD) and Posttraumatic Growth( PTG) in middle school students in disaster area four years after the Wenchuan earth?quake . Methods 1 526 students from four schools in Worst?Hit Areas were investigated with Self?compiled Earth?quake Exposure Factors Questionnaire,Posttraumatic Growth Inventory( C?PTGI) and Impact of Event Scale( IES?R). Data were analyzed by ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis.Results The score of IES?R had sig?nificant difference between different levels of all exposure factors(F=5.75~89.10, P<0.05) ,and students with high exposure level((26.68±14.66),(26.80±15.56),(27.83±14.62),(29.02±15.36),(27.77±15.74),(26.74± 15.63),(25.43±14.32),(29.51±14.36)) had heavier symptoms of PTSD than those with low exposure level ((22.84±13.96),(23.98±13.99),(23.63±14.21),(23.53±13.96),(23.64±13.83),(24.24±14.15),(21.27± 14.35),(17.54±13.34)). Only exposure factors of having witnessed someone injured and having close friends se?riously injured or being killed could significantly influence the score of PTGI(F=11.82, P=0.001;F=6.23, P=0.013). Regression analysis showed that five exposure factors (grade,having felt scared,having family members being killed,having close friends seriously injured or being killed,having witnessed someone injured) had signifi?cant effect on IES(ΔR 2=0.141) ,but only one factor( having witnessed someone injured) had weak effect on PTG (ΔR 2=0.007).Conclusion Exposure factors can predict posttraumatic stress symptoms in middle school students in Wenchuan four years after the earthquake,and the emotion of fear is a strongest predictor,but they can not pre?dict posttraumatic growth.