Search Results (73)

Background: Hospitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic has been linked with increased psychological distress, cognitive impairment, and reduced quality of life (QoL). Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and rumination may significantly influence QoL outcomes, yet the mechanisms underlying these effects remain poorly understood. Based on the Cognitive Aging Model, this study examines the mediating effects of cognitive and emotional functioning, loneliness, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) on the connection between PTSS/rumination and QoL among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, including the moderator effect of sex, time since discharge, and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: A cohort of 258 patients previously hospitalized with COVID-19 as the primary or secondary diagnosis was assessed 6 to 24 months post-discharge. Participants completed validated self-report and neuropsychological assessments of PTSS, rumination, cognitive function, psychological morbidity (depression and anxiety), loneliness, PTG, and QoL. Path analysis and multigroup analysis were employed to assess mediating and moderating effects. Results: PTSS and rumination were associated with reduced physical and mental QoL, primarily via increased psychological morbidity, impaired cognitive functioning, loneliness, and reduced PTG. Rumination showed strong direct and indirect effects on multiple mediators. Only sex and time since discharge significantly moderated pathways, with women showing a strong association between rumination and cognitive impairment/loneliness, while the association between loneliness and mental QoL was significant only in men and in recently discharged patients. Conclusions: PTSS and rumination contribute negatively to QoL in post-discharged patients with COVID-19 through emotional, cognitive, and social pathways, influenced by sex and duration since discharge. The findings underscore the significance of comprehensive long-term care methods focused on cognitive rehabilitation, psychosocial sT, and social reintegration for COVID-19 survivors. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic presented many potentially traumatic circumstances. Research continues to investigate pandemic-related Post-traumatic Growth (PTG). However, most studies fail to fulfil the parameters of PTG whereby a triggering event must be of seismic intensity and have ceased before PTG can manifest, producing significant validity and reliability issues. The relationships between PTG, trait resilience and fear are also under-researched, particularly in circumstances where the parameters of PTG are met. This study examined the relationship between PTG, COVID-19-related fear and trait resilience. Participants (n = 229) completed an online questionnaire incorporating the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory and the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale. The sample participants were moderately traumatised with moderate–low PTG (M = 50.85). Participants reported greater levels of PTG compared to participants from pre-COVID studies, notably in relation to the constructs of Relating to Other (d = 0.29), New Possibilities (d = 0.47), Personal Strength (d = 0.39), and Spiritual Change (d = 0.29). Higher levels of resilience (B = 0.48) and COVID-19-related fear (B = 0.16) were associated with greater overall PTG. Younger participants also reported greater levels of PTG (B = −0.29). The findings advance current knowledge regarding the potential relationship between fear and PTG and demonstrate that trait resilience is a promotional factor, presenting opportunity for future intervention formulation. However, reform is required within the PTG literature pool. Future research investigating PTG must reach both parameters. In circumstances where this is impossible, research concerning newfound positive cognition during adverse circumstances should be re-explored as Post-Adversarial Appreciation (PAA) to maintain validity. Full article

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies, such as reappraisal and suppression, have been linked to psychological well-being. The available evidence points to the differential impact of ER strategies on resilience and post-traumatic growth (PTG), as factors related to well-being, as well as to sex differences in the link between ER preference and well-being. However, previous studies are mixed regarding these links. To address this issue, college students (N = 1254) recruited between 2020 and 2023 reported their habitual use of ER strategies, resilience and PTG during the COVID-19 pandemic, which, as a global health crisis, has raised not only severe physical health concerns but also mental distress. First, reappraisal was positively associated with both resilience and PTG, whereas suppression was negatively correlated with these measures. Second, female participants had lower suppression scores and higher PTG scores than male participants. Third, a moderation analysis showed that the positive relationship between reappraisal and PTG was stronger in female participants, whereas the negative relationship between suppression and PTG was stronger in male participants. Overall, these findings shed light on the links among ER strategies, resilience, and PTG and have relevance for customized training in the use of reappraisal to increase well-being in women and men. Full article

The 6 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes were devastating events that caused widespread destruction. This mixed-methods study examined post-traumatic growth (PTG) in volunteers who participated in the relief efforts. A total of 169 volunteers participated in the quantitative phase, completing a standardized PTG measure. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 volunteers during the qualitative phase. The study found that gender had a significant effect on total PTG scores. Additionally, gender, earthquake experience, and volunteer organization were significant factors in the “change in self-concept” sub-dimension. Gender was the only significant factor in the “change in philosophy of life” sub-dimension. Qualitative analysis revealed that participants experienced trauma symptoms after the earthquake but also reported positive changes in self-concept and life philosophy. This study suggests that disasters can lead to PTG, despite the presence of trauma symptoms. Further research is needed to explore PTG in different disaster response groups. Full article

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant psychological challenges worldwide, but individuals may also experience post-traumatic growth (PTG)—positive psychological changes following adversity. Identifying factors associated with PTG during global public health crises is crucial for advancing trauma recovery research and informing evidence-based interventions. As interpersonal interactions increasingly move to virtual platforms, online social support has become a key source of psychological resilience. Yet, how online social support facilitates PTG remains unclear, especially in large-scale adversities, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: This study investigates the association between online social support and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the mediating roles of gratitude and positive reappraisal. Method: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in March 2022, recruiting 556 college students (70.83% female). Online social support, PTG, gratitude, and cognitive reappraisal were assessed using validated tools, including the College Students’ Online Social Support Testing Questionnaire, Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), Gratitude Adjective Checklist, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). Results: Participants reported moderate PTG levels. Online social support was positively associated with PTG and exerted both direct and indirect effects. The indirect effects occurred through a sequential mediation pathway, wherein online social support first enhanced gratitude, which in turn, promoted cognitive reappraisal, ultimately contributing to higher PTG levels. Conclusions: This study highlights the significant association between online social support and post-traumatic growth (PTG) during the COVID-19 pandemic, both directly and through the sequential mediating effects of gratitude and cognitive reappraisal. These findings underscore the importance of leveraging digital platforms to provide emotional and cognitive resources that support resilience and growth in times of large-scale adversity. Psychological interventions should prioritize cultivating gratitude and enhancing cognitive reappraisal skills as effective strategies to mitigate the negative psychological impacts of crises and facilitate PTG outcomes. Full article

Background/Objectives: Post-traumatic growth (PTG) has the potential to draw positive consequences from trauma. Hence, there is interest in finding ways to promote PTG. Research has identified an attentional bias towards positive resilience-related words (e.g., “persistence”, “purpose”) in university students who report high PTG after experiencing adversities. Although people can respond to these experiences by showing low PTG, this bias seems to help with their struggle by making purposeful contents more accessible. Therefore, boosting attentional bias towards positive resilience-related words could help people with low PTG. Methods: In this study, the participants were thirty-six university students who had experienced bullying before entering university. Using a Stroop emotional task, they identified the color of resilience and neutral words, either positive or negative, before and after being submitted to transcranial direct current stimulation. Stimulation was targeted at the right temporal area involved in intentionality processing. Results: In the anodal condition, the results support a stimulation effect on the resilience attentional bias that could benefit participants with low PTG. A significant moderation of approach motivation for this effect was also found. Specifically, only when participants had medium or high approach motivation did stimulation boost the attentional bias in students with low PTG. Conclusions: These results support that tDCS stimulation in this brain area is effective in enhancing resilience attentional bias in low-PTG students. However, for this effect to occur it is necessary to have approach motivation, which is motivation related to goals. Full article

Objectives: Many people living with type 2 diabetes experience diabetes distress which impacts negatively on their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, little is known about the modifiable factors or psychological processes that make this happen. The current study examines the role of experiential avoidance and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in association with diabetes distress and the HRQoL. Methods: Participants included 303 patients with type 2 diabetes conveniently selected from two tertiary healthcare institutions in Nigeria. They completed relevant self-report measures. The Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS was used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that experiential avoidance mediated the association between diabetes distress and the HRQoL [95% CI: −0.15, −0.07]. PTG significantly moderated the association between diabetes distress and the HRQoL [95% CI: 0.01, 0.02]. Specifically, diabetes distress was associated with a poor HRQoL only among patients with low levels of PTG but not among those with average and high levels of PTG. Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as it can potentially decrease the experiential avoidance behaviour of patients. Moreover, intervention should also target the facilitation of PTG due to its beneficial effects in reducing the negative effects of diabetes distress on health and recovery. Full article

Objective: In this study, we aimed to determine post-traumatic growth and depression levels in renal transplant recipients and the relationship between these two variables. Design and Methods: The study was conducted with a descriptive, cross-sectional, and correlational design. The data for the study were collected at the organ transplant unit of a research and training hospital located in the west of Turkey. The sample of the study included 122 kidney transplant recipients (n = 122). A Sociodemographic Information Form, the Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were employed to collect data. In the analyses of the data, descriptive statistics, ANOVA, an independent-samples t-test, post hoc tests, and Pearson correlation tests were used. Results: As the ages of the renal transplant recipients increased, their depression scores decreased, while their PTG scores increased. Higher depression levels were identified in the female participants compared to the male participants and in those with a low income compared to other income groups. The lowest PTG levels were found in the recipients who received their kidney transplants from third-degree relatives. Age, gender, economic status, and time of transplant were predictors of depression. The identity of the donor was the most significant predictor of PTG (62% explanation rate). A strong and inverse correlation was found between depression and PTG (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Post-traumatic growth was found to decrease depression. However, while poor economic status led to depression, high economic status did not lead to a significant change in PTG. As education levels increased, PTG decreased, but education status did not have any significant effect on depression. On the other hand, there was a negative correlation between PTG and depression. The results obtained in this study are valuable and important in terms of understanding depression better and determining PTG as a significant factor that could alleviate it. Full article

Objective: Understanding both the positive and negative psychological outcomes among cancer patients during the pandemic is critical for planning post-pandemic cancer care. This study (1) examined levels of psychological distress and post-traumatic growth (PTG) among Canadian cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) explored variables that were associated with psychological distress and PTG during the pandemic using a biopsychosocial framework. Method: A cross-section survey was undertaken of patients receiving ongoing care at a regional cancer centre in Ontario, Canada, between February and December 2021. Self-reported questionnaires assessing sociodemographic information, social difficulties, psychological distress (depression, anxiety fear of recurrence, and emotional distress), PTG, illness perceptions, and behavioural responses to the pandemic were administered. Disease-related information was extracted from patient health records. Results: Prevalences of moderate to severe levels of depression, anxiety, fear of recurrence and emotional distress were reported by 26.0%, 21.2%, 44.2%, and 50.0% of the sample (N = 104), respectively. Approximately 43% of the sample reported experiencing high PTG, and these positive experiences were not associated with levels of distress. Social factors, including social difficulties, being female, lower education, and unemployment status were prominent associative factors of patient distress. Perceptions of the pandemic as threatening, adopting more health safety behaviours, and not being on active treatment also increased patient likelihood to experience severe psychological distress. Younger age and adopting more health safety behaviours increased the likelihood of experiencing high PTG. The discriminatory power of the predictive models was strong, with a C-statistic > 0.80. Conclusions: Examining both the positive and negative psychological patient outcomes during the pandemic has highlighted the complex range of coping responses. Interventions that adopt a multi-pronged approach to screen and address social distress, as well as to leverage health safety behaviours, may improve the adjustments in the pandemic aftermath. Full article

While religion and spirituality (R/S) have been broadly studied for their positive mental health impacts, instances of abuse within religious or spiritual contexts remain under-researched. This scoping review aims to elucidate how individuals experiencing such abuse navigate their trauma, find meaning, and foster posttraumatic growth (PTG). The research was conducted using a scoping review methodology as a guide, and 10 articles were selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Synthesizing these articles revealed the following three central themes: recognizing abuse, relaying one’s story, and redefining spirituality. Survivors often face disbelief and stigma, hindering their ability to process their experiences. However, narrative sharing enables many to reclaim agency and healing through validation and the integration of the narrative into one’s life story. Additionally, survivors often transform spirituality, shifting from rigid frameworks to more nuanced and flexible understandings of the Divine and self. These findings underscore the importance of trauma-informed, spiritually sensitive clinical approaches that validate survivors’ experiences, facilitate narrative sharing, and support spiritual redefining. Future research must address knowledge gaps, including the development of improved assessment tools, exploration of effective treatment strategies, and the unifying of terms to better support survivors’ healing journeys and promote meaning-making and PTG in the aftermath of R/S abuse. Full article

(1) Introduction: Cancer diagnosis has been related to depression, anxiety, and distress, as well as to post-traumatic growth (PTG). One of the mediating variables for emotional response is thought style (rumination, cognitive avoidance, and cognitive engagement). (2) Aim: To identify the relationship between thought style and emotional responses to cancer. A secondary aim was to identify the relationship between emotional responses and inflammatory immunological biomarkers. (3) Method: A total of 115 patients with cancer were included in the study. Before initiating cancer treatment, patients were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), distress thermometer, and Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). Patients provided their most recent blood biometry. (4) Results: Rumination correlated with anxiety, depression, and distress. Cognitive avoidance correlated with PTG (−0.240) and distress (−0.209). Cognitive engagement correlated with PTG (0.393). Regarding thought style and biomarkers, a negative correlation was observed for absolute neutrophils with cognitive avoidance (−0.271) and rumination (0.305). Regarding biomarkers and emotional responses, there was a negative correlation between PTG and absolute lymphocytes (−0.291). There was also a correlation between PTG and neutrophils (0.357) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (0.295). (5) Conclusions: Thought style is related to the emotional response to a cancer diagnosis; rumination is related to depression, distress, and anxiety; and cognitive engagement is related to PTG. PTG is related to inflammation and immunological biomarkers. Full article

The association between post-traumatic growth (PTG) and cognitive empathy is well documented; however, few studies have tested the causal pathways explaining this association in school bullying victims’ later recovery and growth in the long term. This study used a longitudinal design to examine the reciprocal relations between cognitive empathy and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in school bullying victims. We screened 725 adolescents who had experienced school bullying as our final subjects out of the 2173 adolescents we surveyed over three periods (November 2019, 2020, and 2021). Controlling for gender, cross-lagged analysis revealed that both cognitive empathy at T1 and T2 predicted adolescents’ later PTG at T2 (γ = 0.096, p < 0.05) and T3 (γ = 0.085, p < 0.05), respectively, but the predictive effect across time points from PTG to cognitive empathy was not significant. The results delineated a specific directionality in the relation between cognitive empathy and PTG and suggested an important role of cognitive empathy in fostering school bullying victims’ later recovery and growth. These findings contribute to ongoing research into ways researchers and educators may help and support school bullying victims. Full article

Background: Research on post-traumatic growth (PTG) and HIV is scarce and the relationship between PTG and stigma is controversial. Group psychotherapeutic interventions to facilitate PTG in clinical samples are effective but none exist to simultaneously decrease stigma in the HIV population. The main objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention in increasing PTG and decreasing stigma in HIV, as well as to explore relationships between the variables. Methods: Quasi-experimental design with a sample of 42 HIV-positive adults (M = 46.26, SD = 11.90). The experimental group (EG) was subjected to a 9-week group intervention. Instruments: CBI, PTGI-X, PSS-10, HIV stigma, emotional expression, HIV stress indicators, HIV literacy, and skills. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between the variables. Results: There was an increase in PTG and a significant decrease in stigma in all domains and subscales in the EG. Compared to the control group, stigma (t₍₄₂₎ = −3.040, p = 0.004) and negative self-image (W = −2.937, p = 0.003) were significant, showing the efficacy of the intervention. Discussion: The intervention demonstrated success in facilitating PTG, attesting that in order to increase PTG, personal strength, and spiritual change, it is necessary to reduce stigma and negative self-image. The research provides more information on group interventions for PTG in HIV, relationships between variables, and population-specific knowledge for professionals. Full article

The concept of post-traumatic growth (PTG) continues to generate significant interest, as reflected in the increasing number of studies. This article makes two novel contributions to existing scholarship on PTG. First, it seeks to demonstrate that the common framing of PTG as positive psychological change is too narrow. To do so, it looks to research on resilience and highlights the shift from person-centred understandings of resilience to more relational approaches that situate the concept in the interactions and dynamics between individuals and their social ecologies (environments). The article’s core argument is that there are social-ecological synergies between resilience and PTG, which, in turn, are highly relevant to how we think about and study growth. Second, the article empirically develops this argument by drawing on a larger study involving victims-/survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colombia and Uganda. It is important to note in this regard that there are no major studies of PTG focused on CRSV, just as scholarship on CRSV has given little attention to PTG (or indeed resilience). Full article

The theory of posttraumatic growth (PTG) proposes that from life difficulties positive changes can happen, such as deepened personal relationships and an awareness of new possibilities in life. PTG can occur naturally or can be facilitated. This study aimed to promote PTG through a school-based intervention of eight sessions of 45 min each with mindfulness and character strengths practices (the so-called “The exploration of happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic”). The study conducted assessments at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up (i.e., one month after the intervention). The post-intervention results showed that the participants in the intervention group experienced an improvement in PTG, well-being, mindfulness, strengths use, and PTS symptoms compared to the children in the control group. Furthermore, these positive changes were sustained at follow-up. The findings of this study highlight that mindfulness-based strengths practices can increase positive outcomes (i.e., well-being, posttraumatic growth) and reduce negative psychological symptoms (PTS) among children. The implications for theory and practice are discussed, and detailed appendices for practitioners are provided. Full article