Post-traumatic growth among 5195 adolescents at 8.5 years after exposure to the Wenchuan earthquake: Roles of post-traumatic stress disorder and self-esteem

Abstract

We evaluated the level of post-traumatic growth in a large sample of Chinese adolescent earthquake survivors ( n = 5195) and relationships among self-esteem, post-traumatic stress disorder, and post-traumatic growth. This cross-sectional study indicated that the prevalence of post-traumatic growth among adolescent survivors was 14.8 percent. Post-traumatic growth was independently associated with self-esteem, severity of exposures, and avoidance facets of post-traumatic stress disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder was found to be partially mediated by self-esteem on post-traumatic growth; and post-traumatic stress disorder was also a mediator between earthquake exposure and post-traumatic growth. This study suggests that future longitudinal research and clinical practice should test whether promoting self-esteem can enhance post-traumatic stress disorder treatment.

Relationship between post-traumatic disorder and posttraumatic growth in COVID-19 home-confined adolescents: The moderating role of self-efficacy

“…This finding was consistent with previous findings that found that traumatic exposure was strongly associated with PTSD symptoms (Aisenberg et al, 2008;Laufer & Solomon, 2006;Tang et al, 2020b;Yang et al, 2020). The results also appeared to suggest that there was no relationship between objective pandemic exposure and growth, which was in contrast with results from other traumatic events, such as earthquakes (Tang et al, 2020c), domestic abuse (Cobb et al, 2006), or terrorist incidents (Laufer & Solomon, 2006), which suggested that young people may have experienced PTG without having greater pandemic exposure. One possible explanation is that unlike other traumatic events, COVID-19 is highly contagious and has several transmission routes that can potentially threaten everyone, even without having a direct exposure to the pandemic.…”

“…A total score of 61 or higher (cut-off point = 61) has been found to indicate significant PTG (Rodríguez-Rey et al, 2017). The Chinese version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory has been used in previous studies on Chinese adolescents and had shown satisfactory psychometric properties (Tang et al, 2020c). The internal consistency of the present study was found to be excellent (Cronbach's α = 0.963).…”

The Effect of Trait Anxiety on Medical Freshmen's Post-Traumatic Growth: The Mediating Role of Resilience

“…The positive changes after experiencing stress events, including increasing personal strength, identifying new possibilities, increasing enjoyment of life, improving interpersonal relationships and positive mental changes, and these changes could be consistently found across different types of trauma [9,10]. It should be noted that PTG is not a return to baseline following trauma exposure, but rather it could create an increased appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense of personal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life [11].…”

The Contributing Factors of Delayed-Onset Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: A Nested Case-Control Study Conducted After the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

“…Additionally, a study found that a significant number of survivors developed PTSD after six or more months after the initial traumatic event (26). Studies have demonstrated that people continued to suffer from PTSD 8 years after the earthquake (27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32). These studies focused on factors related to PTSD, such as alexithymia (27), post-traumatic growth (28), self-esteem (29), depression (30), suicidal behaviors (31), and community support (32).…”

“…Studies have demonstrated that people continued to suffer from PTSD 8 years after the earthquake (27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32). These studies focused on factors related to PTSD, such as alexithymia (27), post-traumatic growth (28), self-esteem (29), depression (30), suicidal behaviors (31), and community support (32). However, all of them were cross-sectional studies and none of them focused on delayed-onset PTSD.…”