Background: Distress screeners are an important form of psychological assessment instrument for their ability to efficiently detect self-reported symptomatology. One popular example is the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI).
Background: Existing literature establishes several patterns regarding exposure to severe stressors-most people experience one or more traumatic events, most people are resilient following such events, and people are more likely to develop posttraumatic symptomatology if experiencing repeated traumas. However, questions about protective factors remain as researchers work to clarify the mechanisms of resilience. Here, we argue the developmental assets framework is an apt model for conceptualizing resilience in emerging adults in college/university settings, a high-risk population for both trauma exposure and subsequent distress. We hypothesized that asset-richness (i.e., total scores on the developmental assets inventory) would moderate the link between trauma exposure frequency and severity of posttrauma symptomatology. Method: We surveyed a convenience sample of emerging adults at a private religiously affiliated university in the Midwestern United States (n = 526) regarding trauma exposure (THQ), perceived developmental assets (CAMPUS), and experience of posttrauma symptoms (PCL-S). We ran correlations, linear regression, and moderator analysis using the PROCESS "Model 1" macro and the CAHOST Johnson-Neyman region visualizer. Results: We found that posttraumatic symptom severity was positively correlated with the frequency of trauma exposure (r = .30, p , .001) and negatively correlated with asset-richess (r = −.26, p , .001), and that asset-richness statistically significantly moderated the link between trauma exposure and posttrauma symptoms, F(3, 522) = 31.87, p , .001, R 2 = .16. Discussion: The developmental assets framework appears to be an effective model of resilience for many emerging adults in college/university settings, and we encourage future research to further clarify these connections.
Emerging findings on the transdiagnostic etiologic role of death anxiety in psychopathology, ongoing refinement of terror management theory, and other recent advances have led to an increased focus upon death anxiety in clinical psychology. These efforts are important and noteworthy. However, we argue that a fully existentially-informed clinical psychology would not simply include death anxiety as a static, objective, categorical consideration alongside other positivistic studies. Rather, an existential lens upon teaching, research, and applied professional practice of clinical psychology should yield a perspective emphasizing the subjective, phenomenological, qualitative, person-centered, and dynamic nature of how self-aware existence necessarily affects mental health. Here, we briefly review four ongoing lines of inquiry (philosophical existentialism, existential psychotherapy, death anxiety psychometrics, and terror management theory), and argue in favor of their increasingly intertwined integration with one another and with the broader field of clinical psychology. We propose methods for both academics and practitioners alike to more fully embrace an existentially-informed mindset, including articulating a set of recommendations across clinical work, research, and pedagogy. Examples include increased use of qualitative data via case study and mixed-method approaches in scholarship, enhanced incorporation of existential themes (including and beyond death anxiety) into clinical assessment and case conceptualization, and adoption of a student-focused freedom-enhancing existential mindset in pedagogy. Our field has made great strides in deepening the understanding of how life’s ultimate concerns inform functioning in recent years, and we argue for an even more robust endorsement of existential frameworks in clinical psychology.
Background: Existing literature establishes several patterns regarding exposure to severe stressors—most people experience one or more traumatic events, most people are resilient following such events, and people are more likely to develop posttraumatic symptomatology if experiencing repeated traumas. However, questions about protective factors remain as researchers work to clarify mechanisms of resilience. Here, we argue the developmental assets framework is an apt model for conceptualizing resilience in emerging adults in college/university settings, a high risk population for both trauma exposure and subsequent distress. We hypothesized that asset-richness (i.e., total scores on the developmental assets inventory) would moderate the link between trauma exposure frequency and severity of posttrauma symptomatology. Methods: We surveyed a convenience sample of emerging adults at a private religiously-affiliated university in the Midwestern United States (n = 526) regarding trauma exposure (THQ), perceived developmental assets (CAMPUS), and experience of posttrauma symptoms (PCL-S). We ran correlations, linear regression, and moderator analysis using the PROCESS “Model 1” macro and the CAHOST Johnson-Neyman region visualizer. Results: We found that posttraumatic symptom severity was positively correlated with frequency of trauma exposure (r = .30, p < .001) and negatively correlated with asset-richess (r = -.26, p < .001), and that asset-richness statistically significantly moderated the link between trauma exposure and posttrauma symptoms (F(3, 522) = 31.87, p < .001, R2 = .16). Discussion: The developmental assets framework appears to be an effective model of resilience for emerging adults in college/university settings, and we encourage future research to further clarify these connections.
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