title: [Design and validation of the scales for the assessment of the psychological impact of past life events: the role of ruminative thought and personal growth].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Older people's emotional distress is often related to rumination processes focused on past vital events occurred during their lives. The specific coping strategies displayed to face those events may contribute to explain older adults' current well-being: they can perceive that they have obtained personal growth after those events and/or they can show a tendency to have intrusive thoughts about those events. This paper describes the development and analysis of the psychometric properties of the Scales for the Assessment of the Psychological Impact of Past Life Events (SAPIPLE): the past life events-occurrence scale (LE-O), ruminative thought scale (LE-R) and personal growth scale (LE-PG).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 393 community dwelling elderly (mean age=71.5 years old; SD=6.9). In addition to the SAPIPLE scales, depressive symptomatology, anxiety, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, physical function and vitality have been assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The inter-rater agreement's analysis suggests the presence of two factors in the LE-O: positive and negative vital events. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported this two-dimensional structure for both the LE-R and the LE-PG. Good internal consistency indexes have been obtained for each scale and subscale, as well as good criterion and concurrent validity indexes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both ruminative thoughts about past life events and personal growth following those events are related to older adults' current well-being. The SAPIPLE presents good psychometric properties that justify its use for elderly people.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Alcorcón, Madrid, España. virginia.fernandez.fernandez@urjc.es
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fernández-Fernández
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Márquez-González
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Losada-Baltar
authors.forename: Pablo E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romero-Moreno
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Bienestar emocional; Crecimiento postraumático; Depresión; Depression; Elderly; Emotional well-being; Life events; Personas mayores; Posttraumatic growth; Rumiación; Rumination; Sucesos vitales