Previous research has demonstrated negative mental health consequences (including PTSD symptoms) of construing a potentially traumatic event as central to one's identity. In the current paper, we replicated an association between event centrality and PTSD symptoms. We also found event centrality similarly predicts posttraumatic growth (PTG) even after controlling for PTSD symptoms, depression, DSM-IV A1 and A2 status of the event, coping styles and cognitive processing of the event. Because predictive relationships between event centrality and PTSD symptoms, as well as event centrality and PTG were positive, construing an event as central to one's identity can indeed become a double-edged sword, allowing for both debilitation and growth.

The current study assessed relationships between religious coping, gender, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG). A sample of 1,016 participants completed measures of these constructs during an online mass testing procedure. Overall, positive religious coping was more strongly related to PTG and negative religious coping was more strongly related to PTSD. These relationships remained significant after controlling for traditional coping methods, gender, and race. In addition, positive religious coping partially mediated the relationship between gender and PTG. Positive correlations were also observed between negative religious coping and PTG and between positive religious coping and PTSD. The role of religious coping in the development of PTG and PTSD is discussed as well as clinical implications.

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the use of cognitive words in narratives of negative events and the association with the meaning-making process were examined. Cognitive word use, a past predictor of beneficial outcomes from the expressive writing intervention, was related to the process of meaning making in Study 1. this finding was true for memories that lacked psychological closure. in Study 2, we replicated the finding that cognitive word use is related to the meaning-making process using an alternative measure of meaning making. however, cognitive word use was not found to be related to the outcome of meaning making. the extent to which participants were engaged in meaning-making was negatively related to narrative coherence. these results suggest that the meaning-making process may be a precursor to achieving narrative coherence. Additionally, participants randomly assigned to expressive writing instructions engaged in the meaning-making process to a greater extent than participants asked to simply describe their negative event, suggesting that expressive writing encourages the meaning-making process.