Peritraumatic distress, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and posttraumatic growth in victims of violence

Abstract

This study explored whether peritraumatic distress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are curvilinearly related to posttraumatic growth in victims of violence several years after victimization (Time 1; n = 678) and 6 months later (Time 2, n = 205). At both time points, curve estimation revealed linear and quadratic associations between peritraumatic distress and posttraumatic growth and quadratic associations between PTSD symptoms and posttraumatic growth. In multivariate regressions controlling for background variables, the linear peritraumatic distress and quadratic PTSD symptom terms remained significant predictors of posttraumatic growth Time 1 scores. For Time 2, the linear peritraumatic distress term remained significant, though only prior to controlling for posttraumatic growth Time 1 scores. The results suggest that peritraumatic distress enables growth after substantial time has elapsed since victimization.

Attachment Styles and Personal Growth following Romantic Breakups: The Mediating Roles of Distress, Rumination, and Tendency to Rebound

“…These differences in distress reflect anxious and avoidant individuals’ tendencies toward attachment system hyperactivation versus deactivation, respectively [13]. Furthermore, breakup distress was positively associated with personal growth, in line with studies linking the intensity of peritraumatic distress with posttraumatic growth [34], [35]. Study 2 clarified two mediators – ruminative reflection and brooding – of this association.…”

“…Related findings from the posttraumatic growth literature have linked attachment security with greater posttraumatic growth than attachment insecurity [33], but this research focused on people who experienced extreme trauma (former political prisoners exposed to torture), whereas we have focused on people coping with romantic breakups. Importantly, other findings suggest that the distress experienced at the time of trauma is positively associated with later growth [34], [35], suggesting that attachment-anxious individuals’ propensity towards intensified distress, and attachment-avoidant individuals’ tendency to suppress their distress, may have implications for their post-breakup growth.…”

Posttraumatic growth, depressive symptoms, posttraumatic stress symptoms, post-migration stressors and quality of life in multi-traumatized psychiatric outpatients with a refugee background in Norway

“…Other researchers have suggested a curvilinear relationship between PTG and PTSD, where higher scores of PTG are associated with mild PTSD symptoms, and lower PTG scores are associated with high and low PTSD symptoms [30,46,47]. The conflicting findings on the relationship between PTG and PTSD might be explained by mediating factors unaccounted for in previous research.…”

Risk perception and emergency experience: comparing a representative German sample with German emergency survivors

“…Kunst (2010) highlighted that the impact of distressing events at different time points, both in the immediate and more distant aftermath, has so far not been investigated with respect to the relationship between distress RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN POST-EVENT DISTRESS AND GROWTH AMONG FIREFIGHTERS 6 and growth. Furthermore, we found no published work except a very recent paper by Leykin, Lahad and Bonneh (2013) that had examined the relationship between post-event distress and growth specifically with firefighters.…”