Quantitative assessment of suffering through the scale of positive and negative affect (PANAS) in the victims of the Pedernales earthquake - Ecuador 2016

Abstract

Introduction: This work was developed with a group of victims of the earthquake of April 2016 who were received in the city of Santo Domingo de los Colorados. A measure of negative affect and positive affect was used, since both are mood factors that appear predominant in self-reporting evaluations in several studies. These factors are predictors of some mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, according to available empirical evaluations.

Objective: Identify the type of affective response in the victims of the Pedernales earthquake - Ecuador (April 2016) that were hosted in the city of Santo Domingo de los Colorados.

Methods: A transversal analytical quantitative study was carried out, through which the PANAS instrument was applied in the participating population through self-reported surveys. The PANAS instrument measured the affective response for positive and negative affect in the participants.

Results: There were a total of 119 participants, 63% were women, more than half of the participants were single; almost half of the population had some degree of primary education, and 10% lacked instruction. The scales of PANAS showed internal consistency globally and when analyzed by sex. The factorial analysis allowed the researchers to confirm the presence of two components in the same way as in similar studies.  However, a third factor emerged from 4 NA (Negative Affect) reactants. NA measurements were statistically lower in the male population compared to the female population.

Conclusions: Males obtained lower NA scores compared to women. The PANAS scale is a consistent instrument for assessing affection in diverse populations. When applied to a population victim of a disaster, a third factor arose within the NA dimension.