The purpose of this study was to validate the Korean version of the Psychological Well-Being―Post-Traumatic Changes Questionnaire (PWB-PTCQ) with a Korean adult sample. Also this study examined the relative influence of variables of changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event. To achieve this purpose, this study conducts a research through the following procedures. In study 1, first, Eighteen item originally developed by Regal and Joseph and validated by Joseph et al(2012a) went through a translation and back-translation procedure to be adapted prior to data collection. Second, In the preliminary study, item analysis, reliability analysis, and exploratory factor analysis(EFA) were conducted in a 125 adult sample who had experienced traumatic events. As a result of the EFA, 1 item(item 1) needed elimination and PWB-PTCQ consisted of 2 factors with 17 item. Third, In the confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) in a 306 adult sample who had experienced traumatic events different from subjects recruited for EFA. The results of the CFA confirmed that the 2-factor model(17 items) was fit to the data. The overall fit measures of such as x2, TLI, CFI, RESEA were all acceptable. But, 1 item(item 8) needed elimination because of parameter estimated value. So, the result of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that PWB-PTCQ consisted of 2 factor and sixteen. Fourth, Statistical analyses through the convergent and discriminant validity test revealed that the PWB-PTCQ was a reliable and valid measure for the changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event of Korean adults. Concurrent validity was good with PTGI. Convergent validity with optimitism, gratitude, cognitive reappraisal were verified respectively showing significantly positive correlation. Also, discriminant validity with distress after experiencing trauma showed significantly negative correlation.
In study 2, in study examined the relative influence of variables of changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event in a 222 adult sample who had experienced traumatic events. At First, changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event showed positive correlation with self-resilience and positive reaction to trauma disclosures, and showed negative correlation with negative reaction to trauma disclosures.
Next, analysis of the variable affection the changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event, the variable that exerted the most effect on changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event was self-resilience followed by positive reaction to trauma disclosures.
This study revealed that the important individual factor of self-resilience and positive reaction to trauma disclosures had a positive influence on changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event.
Based on the findings of this study, the changes in psychological well-being following traumatic event showed proper psychometric validity and the implications and limitations of this study and discussed with the suggestions for the future studies.