Post-traumatic growth of people who have experienced earthquakes: Qualitative research systematic literature review

Abstract

IntroductionEarthquakes can have a variety of physical, emotional, and social effects on the people who experience them. Post-traumatic Growth (PTG) results from people attempting to reconstruct their lives after experiencing a traumatic event. We intend to inform the local community of the importance of disaster psychology by identifying and analyzing the literature on post-traumatic growth experiences of subjects who experienced earthquakes.MethodsThis study applied a systematic review of qualitative research published from January 1, 2012 to January 31, 2021 to understand PTG in people who have experienced earthquakes. The search expressions “Post-traumatic Growth”, “Earthquake”, “Qualitative” were applied to CINAHL, EMBASE, PubMed, PsycInfo, KISS, RISS, and NDSL databases. Initially, 720 papers were found; after removal of duplicates, 318 remained. After a review of titles and abstracts, 186 papers that did not meet the selection criteria of this study were removed. After a further examination of the remaining 132 papers, the researchers removed 65 papers that did not match the research topic. Lastly, of the remaining 67 papers, detailed review eliminated quantitative papers that did not match this study (25), articles that were not original (19), articles in which results were not PTG (8), articles that were not related to this study (3), articles that were not written in English (2), or articles that had mixed topics (2). Eight papers remained.ResultsThe results of this study show that the PTG in people who have experienced earthquakes can be classified into three categories: “Change in self-perception”, “Change of interpersonal relationships”, and “Spiritual change”. They can be further classified into eight subcategories: “Reviewing one's existence”, “Acceptance”, “Discovering strengths by working through adversity”, “Gratitude for life”, “Changes in personal relations”, “Changes in social relations”, “Accepting the existence of God”, and “A breakthrough to overcome difficulties”.DiscussionThese results can be used as basic data for a positive psychological understanding for those who have experienced earthquake trauma.

Trait rumination in post-stress growth among Chinese college students: the chain mediating effect of distress disclosure and perceived social support

“…Traditionally, rumination has been associated with adverse outcomes, such as depression and anxiety (18). In recent years, most researchers have also uncovered a different perspective: the process of rumination, wherein individuals reflect on the impact and significance of a profoundly traumatic event, can lead to newfound wisdom and personal growth (19,20). The majority of previous studies have demonstrated the influence of rumination on personal growth, with the nature of its effects being contingent upon factors such as the time elapsed since the events and the particular subcomponents of rumination (21)(22)(23).…”

“…To explore the occurrence of significant events, we employed the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist (49) to evaluate the influence of adverse life events on Chinese college students over the preceding 12 months. This checklist comprises 27 items (e.g., "Relatives and friends suffer from acute or serious illness" and "Being discriminated against") and encompasses six key dimensions: interpersonal relationship (1, 2, 4, 15, 25), learning pressure (3,9,16,18,22), punishment (17,18,19,20,21,23,24), loss (12,13,14), health adaptation (5,8,11,27), and other (6,7,23,24). Each item was assessed with a 5-point Likert scale to rate the influence of negative life events on Chinese college students: no influence (1), mild influence (2), moderate influence (3), severe influence (4), and extremely severe influence (5).…”