Structural equation modeling of associations among combat exposure, PTSD symptom factors, and Global Assessment of Functioning (original) (raw)
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Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1996
Structural equation modeling was used to examine relationships among prewar factors, dimensions of war-zone stress, and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology using data from 1,632 female and male participants in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. For men, previous trauma history (accidents, assaults, and natural disasters) directly predicted PTSD and also interacted with war-zone stressor level to exacerbate PTSD symptoms for high combat-exposed veterans. Male veterans who entered the war at a younger age displayed more symptoms. Family instability, childhood antisocial behavior, and age had indirect effects on PTSD for men. For women, indirect prewar effects emanated from family instability. More attention should be given to critical developmental conditions, especially family instability and earlier trauma exposure, in conceptualizing PTSD in adults.
Comorbidity in posttraumatic stress disorder: a structural equation modelling approach
Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2008
Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with high rates of psychiatric comorbidity. Existing theories consider comorbidity as a consequence of PTSD (model 1), PTSD and comorbidity as a consequence of shared factors of vulnerability (model 2), and comorbidity as a consequence of trauma-type specific mechanisms (model 3). Method: To compare the explanatory value of these models, we assessed PTSD (model 1), sense of coherence (model 2) and satisfaction with health (model 3) and symptoms of anxiety and depression as indicators of comorbidity 5 days (t1) and 6 months (t2) postaccident in 225 injured accident survivors. Structural equation models representing models 1 to 3 were tested separately and combined. Results: Combined, models 1 and 3 explained 82% of the variance of comorbid symptoms at t2. Posttraumatic stress disorder and satisfaction with health (t2) exerted strong influences on comorbid symptoms. Conclusion: Comorbidity besides PTSD is best described by an integration of competing explanatory models.
Psychological Assessment, 2010
We examined possible differences in the factor structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the basis of whether frequency or intensity symptom response formats were used to assess PTSD. Participants included 669 veterans recruited from an epidemiological study of four Veterans Affairs Medical Centers' primary care clinics in the southeastern United States. Confirmatory factor analysis using measurement invariance testing found that the frequency and intensity symptom formats were significantly different from each other on PTSD's factor structure parameters, including factor loadings, observed variable intercepts, and measurement errors. The only exception was for PTSD's effortful avoidance symptoms, which were associated with equivalent parameter estimates for both the frequency and intensity formats. Implications for the clinical assessment of PTSD and interpretation of the extant literature base on PTSD's factor structure are considered.
The Spanish Journal of Psychology
Several studies have reported the factor structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results show models with different number of factors, high correlations between factors, and symptoms that belong to different factors in different models without affecting the fit index. These elements could suppose the existence of considerable item cross-loading, the overlap of different factors or even the presence of a general factor that explains the items common source of variance. The aim is to provide new evidence regarding the factor structure of PTSD using CFA and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). In a sample of 1,372 undergraduate students, we tested six different models using CFA and two models using ESEM and ESEM bifactor analysis. Trauma event and past-month PTSD symptoms were assessed with Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC–5) and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL–5). All six tested CFA models showed good fit indexes (R...
The structure of DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in war veterans
Anxiety, stress, and coping, 2015
The present research examined the underlying factor structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as conceptualized in the recently published fifth edition of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5). Participants were 258 trauma-exposed Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans. A self-report measure of PTSD symptoms was administered to all participants and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to compare several different models of PTSD. CFA revealed that the best-fitting model was a six-factor model in which symptoms loaded onto the factors of intrusion, avoidance, negative affect, anhedonia, dysphoric arousal, and anxious arousal. These findings have important implications for ongoing conceptualization of PTSD and suggest that additional modifications to the diagnostic criteria for PTSD may still be warranted to more accurately reflect the underlying structure of PTSD symptoms.
Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2012
Background: A large body of confirmatory factor analytic studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms has demonstrated the superiority of 4-factor dysphoria and emotional numbing models over the DSM-IV model. Recently, a novel 5-factor model, which separates the DSM-IV hyperarousal symptom cluster into distinct dysphoric and anxious arousal clusters, has been identified. However, little research has evaluated the best-fitting representation of PTSD symptoms in veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Methods: Confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the factor structure of the PTSD Checklist in three independent samples of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, including two community samples and a treatment-seeking sample. Results: In all three samples, a novel model with five correlated factors reflecting symptoms of reexperiencing, avoidance, emotional numbing, dysphoric arousal, and anxious arousal provided a significantly better representation of PTSD symptoms than the DSM-IV, dysphoria, and numbing models. This model also showed evidence of "excellent fit" in the community samples according to empirically-defined benchmarks. Conclusions: These findings suggest that PTSD symptomatology in both community and treatmentseeking Iraq/Afghanistan veterans may be best represented by a 5-factor model that separates the DSM-IV PTSD hyperarousal symptom cluster into distinct dysphoric arousal and anxious arousal clusters.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2002
factor analysis was used to compare 6 models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, ranging from 1 to 4 factors, in a sample of 3,695 deployed Gulf War veterans (N ϭ 1,896) and nondeployed controls (N ϭ 1,799). The 4 correlated factors-intrusions, avoidance, hyperarousal, and dysphoria-provided the best fit. The dysphoria factor combined traditional markers of numbing and hyperarousal. Model superiority was cross-validated in multiple subsamples, including a subset of deployed participants who were exposed to traumatic combat stressors. Moreover, convergent and discriminant validity correlations suggested that intrusions may be relatively specific to PTSD, whereas dysphoria may represent a nonspecific component of many disorders. Results are discussed in the context of hierarchical models of anxiety and depression.