Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form among Chinese-speaking cancer patients

Background This study translated the English version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF) into Chinese and evaluated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the PTGI-SF. Methods This study was divided into two phases. Phase I translated the English version of the PTGI-SF into Chinese and evaluated its content and face validity. In Phase II, the study participants were administered the Chinese versions of the PTGI-SF, the Benefit Finding Scale (BFS) as comparators to assess convergent validity, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as a comparator to evaluate discriminant validity. The factor structure of the Chinese version of the PTGI-SF was examined using exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), while the reliability of the Chinese version of the PTGI-SF was determined by measuring internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Results A total of 514 cancer patients with mixed cancer types completed the study. The Chinese version of the PTGI-SF exhibited good content and face validity. The internal consistency of the Chinese version of the PTGI-SF was good, with a Cronbach’s α of 0.890 and a McDonald’s omega of 0.884, while the test–retest reliability was also acceptable, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.785 ( p < 0.001). Convergent validity of the Chinese version of the PTGI-SF was supported, as Pearson’s correlation coefficients between the total BFS score and both the PTGI-SF total score and several subscale domains were greater than 0.5. The discriminant validity of the instrument was also achieved, as Pearson’s correlation coefficients between the total HADS score and both the PTGI-SF total score and several subscale domains were less than 0.3. EFA and CFA confirmed that the Chinese version of the PTGI-SF consisted of only one factor. Conclusion The Chinese version of the PTGI-SF had good psychometric properties and is ready for use in the Chinese-speaking cancer population.