Comparison Between the Original PTGI and the PTGI-SF in a Large Sample of New Mothers

The first objective of this study is to review and synthesize research from the past fifteen years on variables associated with personal growth (or post-traumatic growth, PTG) during the transition to motherhood, and to revisit key questions using a uniquely large dataset; the second objective of the study is to compare findings across different PTG scoring methods, to determine whether the long and short forms of the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) produce equivalent data and whether the five growth domain scores provide additional insights beyond the total scores. Data were aggregated from multiple previous studies, resulting in a large sample (n = 4641) of first-time mothers with infants up to 24 months old (M = 6.82 months, SD = 4.42). Analysis of the associations between demographic and childbirth characteristics and PTG scores revealed that in most cases, the original PTGI and the short version (PTGI-SF) exhibited similar associations with the background variables. The five PTGI domain scores of personal strengths, spirituality, new opportunities, and appreciation of life showed associations consistent with those observed for the two total scores. The findings reinforce and validate previous research, while also offering new insights. Notably, the results suggest that the PTGI-SF is highly useful, as it yields results comparable to those of the original, longer inventory.