Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI)

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory was developed by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996) in order to measure positive changes in the aftermath of traumatic events. It consists of 21 items rated on a 6–point scale ranging from 0 (“I did notexperience this change as a result of my crisis”) to 5 (“I experienced this change to a very great degree”). PTGI includes 5 subscales measuring new possibilities (5 items), relating to others (7 items), personal strength (4 items), spiritual changes (2 items), and appreciation of life (3 items). Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996) reported the internal consistency of PTGI as .90, and the internal consistency of 5 subscales were reported as: new possibilities (α = .84), relating to others (α = .85), personal strength (α = .72), spiritual change (α = .85), and appreciation of life (α = .67).

The scale was translated into Turkish by Kılıç (2005). In this translation, Kılıç (2005), instead of the original 6–point scale, used 5–point scale and made some modifications in wording of the items. In 2006, Dirik translated PTGI into Turkish by also using Kılıç’s translation as a guide, and preferred to use 6–point scale as in the original inventory. In the study conducted with rheumatoid arthritis patients (Dirik, 2006), the results of the factor analysis revealed three factors named as: relationship with others (α = .86), philosophy of life (α = .87), and self– perception (α = .88). The Cronbach’s alpha level of the whole scale was reported
as .94.

In a study conducted with 1253 participants, Karancı, Aker, Işıklı, Erkan, Gül, and Yavuz (2012), used the Turkish adaptation of PTGI (Dirik, 2006) and the factor analysis revealed 5 factors as in the original scale. The internal reliability coefficients of new possibilities, spiritual change, relating to others, personal strength, and appreciation of life were found to be .81, .76, .79, .79, and .83, respectively. The internal reliability of the whole scale was reported as .93.

In the present study, PTGI was used to assess positive changes in the aftermath of motor vehicle accident. The Turkish translation of Dirik (2006) and the 5–factor solution of Karanci et al. (2012) were used in this study. The internal reliability coefficients of new possibilities, spiritual change, relating to others, personal strength, and appreciation of life were found to be .92, .85, . 86, .84, and.93, respectively. The internal reliability of the whole scale was statistically good (α = .96) (See Appendix E for PTGI).