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Stressful events that disrupt the assumptive world can force people to make cognitive changes to accommodate these highly stressful experiences. As fundamental assumptions are reestablished, many people report changes and experiences that reflect posttraumatic growth (PTG). The present research describes the development of the Core Beliefs Inventory (CBI), a brief measure of disruption of the assumptive world developed for use in applied research and clinical settings. Three studies, two using college samples (Study 1, n=181 and Study 2, n=297 time 1; 85 time 2) and the third using leukemia patients (Study 3, n=70 time 1; 43 time 2), assessed the utility of the CBI to predict PTG in both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Relationships between the CBI and measures of self-reported PTG and well-being indicate that the CBI has construct validity, acceptable test-retest reliability, and very good internal consistency. The CBI may be a useful tool in investigating predictions about the effects of stressful experiences on an individual's assumptive world, PTG, and successful adaptation.

This study extends L. G. Calhoun and R. G. Tedeschi's (1998) model of posttraumatic growth (PTG), positive change resulting from the struggle with trauma, to children by exploring the construct among youngsters who experienced Hurricane Floyd and the subsequent flooding. Despite burgeoning interest in PTG, few studies have examined the phenomenon among non-adults. This first systematic study of PTG in children explores hypothesized linkages among PTG and social support, competency beliefs, and ruminative thinking. Results suggest that competency beliefs relate to PTG and that a supportive social environment and ruminative thinking are associated with positive competency beliefs. Contrary to expectations, social support did not relate to rumination. Findings testify to the merit of studying the PTG process in children. Clinical implications and future directions are considered.

This study explored posttraumatic growth (PTG), positive change resulting from struggling with trauma, among 7- to 10-year-olds impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Analyses focused on child self-system functioning and cognitive processes, and the caregiving context, in predicting PTG at two time points. Findings suggest that rumination, both negative, distressing thoughts and constructive, repetitive thinking, plays an important role in PTG. Hypotheses regarding future expectations and perceived competence were not fully supported, and, unexpectedly, coping competency beliefs, realistic control attributions, and perceived caregiver warmth did not contribute to PTG models. With one exception (positive reframing coping advice), caregiver–reported variables did not relate to PTG; no caregiver variable reached significance in final models. Relevant theory, developmental considerations, and future directions are discussed.

Recently, the field of mental health has incorporated a growing interest in strengths, resilience, and growth, psychological phenomena that may be associated with healthy adjustment trajectories and profitably integrated into strategies for clinical assessment and practice. This movement constitutes a significant shift from traditional deficit-oriented approaches. Addressing clinical practitioners, this article (a) provides a broad overview of these constructs and phenomena, (b) discusses their relevance for clinical assessment and intervention, and (c) describes selected strategies and approaches for conducting assessments that can guide intervention.

To determine the underlying factor structure of the Japanese version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-J), a principal components analysis was performed on data from 312 Japanese undergraduate students who reported growth due to their most traumatic event within the last 5 years. Results showed the PTGI-J has high internal consistency and, of the original five factors reported by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996), three were replicated: Relating to Others, New Possibilities, Personal Strength, and a fourth factor integrating Spiritual Change and Appreciation of Life emerged. There were neither gender differences nor relationships with time since trauma. PTGI-J scores were positively associated with posttraumatic symptoms and correlated with type of traumatic event experienced. These results and future directions are discussed from a cross-cultural viewpoint.

Posttraumatic growth (PTG; positive change resulting from the struggle with trauma) was examined among children impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C-R) assessed PTG at two time points, 12 (T1) and 22 months (T2) posthurricane. The PTGI-C-R demonstrated good reliability. Analyses focused on trauma-related variables in predicting PTG. Child-reported subjective responses to the hurricane and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) correlated with PTG at T1; however, in the regression, only PTSS significantly explained variance in PTG. At follow-up, T1 PTG was the only significant predictor of PTG. Findings suggest that the PTGI-C-R may assist efforts to understand children's responses posttrauma.Although posttraumatic growth (PTG), positive change resulting from one's struggle with trauma, has garnered considerable interest in the adult literature , the construct has received less attention among nonadults (Kilmer, 2006). As such, there is no clear standard for measurement in children and youth. Nevertheless, PTG has been reported in youth exposed to diverse traumas, including disasters (Cryder, Kilmer, Tedeschi, & Calhoun, 2006). In this article, we describe the revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C-R) and correlates of PTG. This adaptation of the PTGI-C (Cryder et al., 2006) shortened the scale and simplified the response metric and item wording to facilitate efficient assessment of PTG in clinical and research settings.This study grows out of a project assessing children and caregivers post-Hurricane Katrina. Describing the sample's experiences, Gil-Rivas, Kilmer, Hypes, and Roof (in press) noted that 86.8% endorsed experiencing at least one hurricane-related trauma, and 63.2% of children reported that Katrina was one of the "most scary" events they had experienced. Overall, children and families reported substantial adversity and, one-year post-Katrina, 21% of children obtained scores suggesting probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); nearly all reported experiencing at least one posttraumatic stress symptom much or most of the time during the previous month.We expected that (a) the PTGI-C-R would demonstrate good reliability at baseline (T1) and follow-up (T2), and that a meaningful proportion of children would evidence growth; (b) at T1, indicators of subjective response to the hurricane and ongoing distress i.e. posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) would relate positively to PTG, over and above objective exposure; and (c) given the hypothesized role of distress in catalyzing the process that yields (and perhaps maintains) growth, T1 levels of PTSS and PTG would predict T2 PTG. METHOD ParticipantsFace-to-face interviews were conducted with children (aged 7-10 years) and their primary caregivers in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA metropolitan areas and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Baseline interviews were conducted roughly one year posthurricane (M = 12.4 months, SD = 3.4); follow-ups were approximately 2 years posth...

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