Assessing positive and negative changes in the aftermath of adversity: A short form of the changes in outlook questionnaire

The aim of this study was the preliminary development of a short 10-item version of the CiOQ. First, 10 items were selected on the basis of their high factor loadings in previously published work. Two studies are then reported. In Study 1, the 10 items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis using data from a sample of college students (n = 336) who had experienced adverse events. Study 2 involved a clinical sample (n = 40) of people with posttraumatic stress disorder and examined associations of reported changes with posttraumatic stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth. Evidence is provided for a two-factor structure of the CiOQ Short Form, consisting of positive changes and negatives changes, and for the subscales' internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and differential associations with clinically meaningful outcomes.