Relationship between World Assumptions and Post-Traumatic Growth among Polish Cancer Patients: Moderating Effect of Rumination

Abstract

Background: Although post-traumatic growth is believed to be the result of complex interplays between various factors, cognitive variables appear to play a special role in these interactions. Yet, research on this topic is scant. Therefore, the first purpose of this study was to verify whether there is a direct relationship between world assumptions and post-traumatic growth among Polish cancer patients. As the effect of psychological change in post-traumatic growth may be affected by basic beliefs about the world and oneself, the second goal was to assess whether this association is moderated by rumination. Methods: The study included 215 Polish cancer patients. The Post-traumatic Growth and Depreciation Inventory—Expanded version—(intrusive and deliberate rumination), the World Assumption Scale, and the Event-related Rumination Inventory were applied. Results: Positive, albeit weak, correlations were found between the dimensions of world assumptions and post-traumatic growth. Post-traumatic growth correlated negatively with intrusive rumination and positively with deliberate rumination. The outcomes show that the level of post-traumatic growth resulting from world assumptions is significantly different at various levels of intrusive and deliberate rumination. Conclusion: Lower/medium intrusive rumination seems to strengthen the relationship between benevolence of the world/worthiness of the self and post-traumatic growth, and higher deliberate rumination tends to reinforce the relationship between meaningfulness and post-traumatic growth.

Secondary traumatic stress, vicarious posttraumatic growth, and rumination among healthcare professionals: Examining conditional indirect effect of secondary exposure to trauma.

“…Nolen-Hoeksema (1991) describes rumination as a course of thought and behavior that focuses the individual's attention on his or her emotions and recent life experiences. While some research suggests that rumination can have a moderating effect on PTG (Szczes ńiak et al, 2022), a substantial body of research has documented that PTG occurs via rumination (Kim & Bae, 2019;Lee & Kim, 2018;Liu et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2018), which is consistent with the PTG model. Although rumination may be classified into different forms (Stockton et al, 2011;Treynor et al, 2003), two types of rumination are almost always activated after one's core assumptions are shattered: one is intrusive, automatic, or unintentional and the other is deliberate, more reflective, voluntary or intentional (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006;Cann et al, 2011).…”

Trait rumination in post-stress growth among Chinese college students: the chain mediating effect of distress disclosure and perceived social support

“…In contrast, some previous investigations used the Event-Related Rumination Inventory (77), which encompasses both intrusive and deliberate rumination and is recognized as a measure of posttraumatic rumination (24). Brooding and reflection are conceptualized as trait-like thinking styles or personality characteristics (78), whereas intrusive and deliberate rumination are specific to a particular posttraumatic event (64,(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85). In the limited studies where these rumination types were examined concurrently, deliberate rumination emerged as the sole unique positive predictor, while brooding was identified as the sole unique negative predictor of posttraumatic growth (12,13,86).…”