健康与遗传心理学研究室知识库

研究旨在探讨失独父母创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)症状的潜在类别及相关因素。采用创伤后应激障碍量表(PCL-5)、心理韧性量表对385名失独父母进行测查。结果发现(1)失独父母PTSD症状存在四种潜在类别:高PTSD症状组(27%)、中PISD症状组(25%)、低PTSD症状组(29%)和心理韧性组(19%);(2)相比心理韧性组而言,其他三组有显著的性别和年龄效应,女性、年龄较小的失独父母患PTSD症状的可能性较大;(3)心理韧性对失独父母PTSD症状起到保护作用。研究结果表明失独父母的PTSD症状有明显的分类特征,应对失独群体中的女性、年龄较小和心理韧性水平较低的个体给予更多关注和干预。

There has been a remarkable number of families who have lost their only child known as Shidu family, partially because of the one-child policy in China. Shidu family means that the only child in the family died because of a disaster, an accident, homicide or suicide, and the mother in the family is over the age of 49 years, which means she has passed her reproductive age. At present, there are more than one million Shidu families in China, and about 76,000 Shidu families occur each year according to official statistics. As a unique vulnerable group, they are not only trapped in financial and pension predicament, but also suffer serious physical and mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD), depression, grief symptoms and so forth. However, there is lack of systematic research on distinguishing particular symptom subgroups according to PTSD symptom in Shidu parents. Thus, research of exploring certain patterns of subgroup according to PTSD symptom has important implication for providing an empirical basis for the subsequent intervention work.This study aims to(a) determine whether there are distinct PTSD symptom subgroups or classes in Shidu parents in China,(b) examine whether social-demographic and loss-related variables are associated with different classes. Participants were 385 parents who lost their only child recruited from ten cities of five provinces in China from November 2016 to July 2017. The mean age of participants was 61.46(SD=7.98), with females being 48% of the sample. Participants were asked to complete the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5(PCL-5) and a short Chinese version of Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC-10). Latent profile analysis was used to identify different symptom classes of PTSD.Latent profile analysis revealed four classes of participants: high-symptom(27%), intermediate-symptom(25%), low-symptom(29%) and nonsymptom profile(19%), respectively. Multinomial regression analysis found that:(1) Compared to those in the non-symptom profile:(a) Individuals in the low-symptom profile were more likely to be females(OR = 2.27, 95%Confidence Interval CI=1.16-4.42, p<.05) and younger(OR=.95, 95%CI =.91-.99, p<.05).(b) Individuals in the intermediate-symptom profile were more likely to be females(OR= 2.51, 95%CI= 1.23-5.12, p<.01) and younger(OR=.92, 95%CI =.87-.96, p<.001).(c) Individuals in the high-symptom profile were more likely to be females(OR= 2.26, 95%CI= 1.09-4.68, p<.05), younger(OR=.92, 95%CI =.88-.97, p<.001) and having low level of resilience(OR=.88, 95%CI=.84-.93, p<.001).(2) Compared to those in the low-symptom profile: individuals in the high-symptom profile were more likely to have low level of resilience(OR= 1.12, 95%CI= 1.08-1.17, p<.001).(3) Compared to those in the intermediate-symptom profile: individuals in the high-symptom profile were more likely to have low level of resilience(OR = 1.15, 95%CI = 1.10-1.20, p<.001).In conclusion, there were four latent profiles of PTSD symptoms among parents who lost their only child. Parents who were females, of younger age and had low level of resilience were likely to suffer serious PTSD symptom, while resilience was a protective factor for parents’ PTSD symptom after losing their only child. Attention and effective intervention should be given to those who were females and of younger age, helping them improve their resilience level to reduce the risk of PTSD and even other negative events.