Examining posttraumatic stress disorder models and its structural relationship with depression in left-behind children.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PSTD) is a debilitating caused by exposure to traumatic stressors. With the most recent changes in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), it is important to examine the popular and most recent PTSD factor structure models. This study evaluated six competing model in OFW left-behind children and investigated the structural relationship between the best-fitted PTSD model and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). A sample of 645 left-behind children answered a packet of self-report scales that include ULCA PTSD-Reaction Index and Severity Measure for Depression Scale. The results show that the seven-factor hybrid model composed of intrusion, avoidance, negative effect, anhedonia, externalizing behaviours, anxious arousal, and dysphoric arousal factors emerged as the best fitting model in contrast to other five models. Further, the combined hybrid model and MDD model received acceptable fit and differential relations between PSTD factors and depression apparent. The results are relevant in identifying PTSD symptom clusters that could be considered as core features of PTSD and those that could be treated as transdiagnostic symptom-group. By implication, two-pronged interventions could be developed, one which targets specifically the core features of PTSD, and other which addresses transdiagnostic symptom.