A sample of 46 survivors of Wenchuan earthquake were interviewed in their own homes six months after the earthquake. The sample was composed of equal numbers of Qiang ethnic and Han ethnic. Responses to disaster were described by them through qualitative interviews. Firstly, survivors’ responses to disaster between two ethnics were analyzed in order to identify their differences. Then the reasons for much severer PTSD symptoms suffered by Qiang ethnic were examined from many factors, such as differential exposure, social support, attributing and coping style. Finally, the posttraumatic stress symptoms provided by the survivors (taking all the 46 interviewees as a whole) were analyzed by assessing the extent to which they can correspond to the 17 criterion symptoms of PTSD. This will help develop an indigenous self-report scale as an instrument assessing PTSD among Chinese after natural disasters. Study one is a study that compare posttraumatic stress symptoms of Qiang ethnic with that of Han ethnic. The results indicated that both Qiang and Han ethnics were mentioned many symptoms like intrusion, numbing/avoidance and hyperarsoual symptoms. However, their response style is different in those three symptom categories. The Qiang ethnic tend to response in a directly and explicitly way, such as Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections and active avoidance; While the Han ethnic prefer to hide the emotion and behavior. This different response style may be one of the reasons leading to much severer PTSD symptoms suffered by Qiang ethnic as well as other factors, such as differential exposure, social support, attributing and coping style. Study two is aimed to understand the characteristic of posttraumatic stress symptoms of Chinese people and assess the extent to which these symptoms corresponding to the 17 criterion symptoms of PTSD. The results showed that all of 17 criterion symptoms were mentioned with little or more by study participants with three symptoms mentioned by just 2 or 3 participants. What’s more, many expressions of other psychological and physiological symptoms that could not be classified specifically as one of the 17 criterion symptoms were described by many participants. This Chinese characteristic different from that of Western culture is important for assessing and screening potential victims in future. Unexpectedly, there are some participants mentioned some positive changes arising from their struggle with the aftermath of earthquake. This phenomenon is interesting and need paying attention to in future study.
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