Quantifying the impact of COVID‐19 on the individuals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A cross‐sectional descriptive study of the posttraumatic growth

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the effect of the COVID‐19 outbreak pandemic on the posttraumatic growth among Saudi individuals and also to assess the effect of demographic variables on the PTG. A descriptive design was applied to detect the level of PTG and to determine the differences in PTG due to demographic variables. A randomized sample consisting of 365 participants was chosen; the participants’ ages ranged between 20 and 60. The study sample was divided into subgroups according to demographic variables. The posttraumatic growth scale (PTG‐21) applied online to the study sample. The results indicated that there were high levels of improved personal relationships, increased emotional strength and resilience, greater spiritual connection, and a heightened sense of gratitude toward life among Saudis, while there were low levels of the new opportunities and the total score of posttraumatic growth. The results also found that there are significant statistical differences in the PTG due to demographic variables except academic degree has not no effect in PTG. The findings highlighting the importance of the psychological service centers, to help who suffer from the negative effects of COVID‐19 pandemic outbreak symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsive.

Coping and Post-traumatic Growth Among COVID-19 Patients: A Qualitative Study

“…In another study, PTG experiences were categorized as belief in a higher power, appreciation for life, changing priorities, religious and spiritual change, personal power, and compassion for others (Shakespeare-Finch et al, 2014 ). During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers reported that people have high levels of personal relationships, strengthen emotional power and resilience, gain deeper spiritual connection, and a sense of gratitude for life (Arnout & Al‐Sufyani, 2021 ). The researchers categorized the PTG experience after COVID-19 into themes such as interpersonal relations, new possibilities, personal power, spiritual conversion, appreciation of life, and pollution reduction (Maftei & Holman, 2020 ).…”

Exploring posttraumatic growth after the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This study was conducted in China, which is regarded as a collectivist society that pays more attention to interdependence and interconnection than some other societies ( Triandis, 2001 ). As mentioned above, individuals with different social and cultural backgrounds will have new or specific growth aspects after fighting against the COVID-19 traumatic event ( Arnout & Al-Sufyani, 2021 ; Sun et al, 2021 ). Therefore, this research focuses on exploring the positive growth of tourists at personal, interpersonal, and social levels after experiencing the trauma of COVID-19, and it tests the factors that influenced tourists’ positive changes.…”

Perceived posttraumatic growth and its psychosocial predictors during two consecutive COVID-19 lockdowns.

“…During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, PTG has been examined in various countries worldwide, such as China (Mo et al, 2022; Yu et al, 2022), the United States (Zhou et al, 2020), Sweden (Xie & Kim, 2022), Greece (Kalaitzaki, 2021; Koliouli & Canellopoulos, 2021), Spain (Prieto-Ursúa & Jódar, 2020), Saudi Arabia (Arnout & Al-Sufyani, 2021), and Poland (Tomaszek & Muchacka-Cymerman, 2020), and in specific population subgroups such as health care workers in Greece (Kalaitzaki & Rovithis, 2021), nursing students in Turkey (Yıldız, 2021), nurses in Taiwan (Chen et al, 2021) and China (Mo et al, 2022). Evidence suggests that as long as COVID-19 is perceived as a stressful and potentially traumatic event, a significant proportion of people can achieve PTG (i.e., 39%–89%; cited in Asmundson et al, 2021).…”