Posttraumatic growth during unemployment: A qualitative examination of distress and positive transformation

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the presence of growth, distress, deliberate rumination (a type of positive rumination as opposed to intrusive rumination) and dialectical thinking in a sample of unemployed people. Semi-structured interviews with 22 unemployed people were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis. Fryer's (1992) agency-restriction theory and Jahoda's (1988) latent deprivation theory were used to examine distress, whereas Tedeschi and Calhoun's (2004a) posttraumatic growth theory and Latack and Dozier's career growth model (1986) were used to analyze growth. As a result of dealing with the challenges of unemployment, participants became connected with their inner strengths, experienced gratitude for their supportive relationships, felt compassion for other unemployed people and became open to new career pathways. Deliberate rumination and dialectical thinking appeared to promote posttraumatic growth. This study applied a positive psychology approach to unemployment and examined the relevance of posttraumatic growth within the context of job loss. The paper suggests ways in which unemployment counseling can adopt the dual aims of ameliorating distress and fostering growth.

The four faces of rumination to stressful events: A psychometric analysis.

“…These results confirm our second hypothesis. Moreover, the clinical applications derived from these results suggest that psychological therapy could focus on training deliberate rumination about the stressful events to improve negative symptoms and promote PTG (Waters & Strauss, 2016).…”

Posttraumatic growth in low-income Black mothers who survived Hurricane Katrina.

“…Further, the PTGI has been found repeatedly to be reliable across populations (e.g., for a review, see Johnson & Boals, 2015), including Black women (Bellizzi et al, 2010). A few prior qualitative studies have established some convergent validity for the PTGI in that these studies generally found that the experience of PTG described in qualitative data mapped moderately (Mosher et al, 2017) to well (Shakespeare-Finch, Martinek, Tedeschi, & Calhoun, 2013;Waters & Strauss, 2016) onto the five domains of the PTGI.…”

“…In keeping with the increased negative impact on people identifying as being poor, female gender, or a racial minority, studies have shown elevated rates of mental health distress and disorders among poor Black women post-Katrina compared to other groups (e.g., Elliott & Pais, 2006). In a multiwave longitudinal study of low-income Black mothers who survived Hurricane Katrina (Waters, 2016), 36% of participants at 1-year post-Katrina reported sufficient general psychological distress (depressive and anxiety symptoms) to be indicative of a disorder, up from 24% before Katrina. Even 4 to 5 years after Katrina, 30% of this sample still reported enough distress to indicate a disorder (Waters, 2016).…”

Positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health

“…Prior research shows that positive psychology factors play a significant role in the likelihood of growing stronger through adversity. Intrapersonal variables that prompt growth include positive appraisal and optimism (Prati & Pietrantoni, 2009), reflective modes of thinking (García et al, 2015), capacity for dialectical thinking (Waters & Strauss, 2016), and the process of benefit finding (Danoff-Burg & Revenson, 2005). Positive extrapersonal factors that contribute to growth during challengeing times include social support (Scrignaro et al, 2011) and strengths-based parenting (Zavala & Waters, 2020).…”