Postdisaster stress in the United States and Mexico: A cross-cultural testof the multicriterion conceptual model of posttraumatic stress disorder

Data on symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were collected 6 m onths after Hurricanes Paulina (N = 200; Mexico) and Andrew (non-Hispanic n = 270; United States) using the Revised Civilian Mississippi Scale. A 4-fa ctor measurement model that represented the accepted multicriterion concept ualization of PTSD fit the data of the U.S. and Mexican samples equally wel l. The 4 factors of Intrusion, Avoidance, Numbing, and Arousal correlated s ignificantly and equivalently with severity of trauma in each sample. A sin gle construct explained much of the covariance of the symptom factors in ea ch sample. However, modeling PTSD as a unidimensional construct masked diff erences between samples in symptom severity. With severity of trauma contro lled, the Mexican sample was higher in Intrusion and Avoidance, whereas the U.S. sample was higher in Arousal. The results suggest that PTSD is a mean ingful construct to study in Latin American societies.