Factor structure and external correlates of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among African American firefighters

This study compared the relative goodness of fit of three well-established factorial models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among 477 African American male firefighters in a large city in the US. The compared models were the two four-factor emotional numbing and dysphoria models and a five-factor dysphoric arousal model. The study also examined the convergent and discriminant validity of PTSD symptom clusters in relation to depression and alcohol dependence symptoms. Both the emotional numbing and dysphoric arousal PTSD models provided a superior fit to the data compared to the dysphoria model. Findings also indicated a good fit for factor models that included PTSD, depression, and alcohol dependence latent factors, which provides support for the specificity of PTSD symptom clusters. Depression symptoms were more strongly correlated with PTSD symptom clusters than alcohol dependence. In the dysphoric arousal model, depression and alcohol dependence were equally related to the emotional numbing and dysphoric arousal clusters; however, both depression and alcohol dependence were more highly correlated with dysphoric arousal than with anxious arousal. Even though the emotional numbing and dysphoric arousal models demonstrated a superior fit to the data, the four-factor dysphoria model may provide a more parsimonious representation of PTSD’s latent structure than the five-factor dysphoric arousal model. In conclusion, this study extends support for the well-established PTSD symptom factor models among African Americans, a population with whom these models had not been examined earlier.