Rumination in posttraumatic stress and growth after a natural disaster: a model from northern Chile 2014 earthquakes

Abstract

BackgroundTraumatic experiences, such as natural disasters, produce multiple and serious impacts on people. Despite the traditional focus on negative consequences, in many cases there are also positive consequences, such as posttraumatic growth. Tedeschi and Calhoun proposed a model of posttraumatic growth that emphasizes the role of rumination after the basic beliefs breakdown due to the occurrence of a traumatic experience.MethodA total of 238 volunteers affected by two major earthquakes and tsunami alerts in northern Chile on April 1 and 2, 2014, responded to an online survey measuring subjective severity, basic beliefs change, social share of emotion, rumination, posttraumatic stress, and posttraumatic growth.ResultsPath analyses reveal that posttraumatic stress goes through a negative change in basic beliefs, intrusive rumination, and deliberated rumination, meanwhile posttraumatic growth is only achieved directly from a positive change in basic beliefs and deliberated rumination.DiscussionThe model is consistent with the empirical model obtained in Chilean people affected by the earthquake and tsunami that occurred on 27 February, 2010, but it is slightly different and in a form that is more consistent with Tedeschi and Calhoun’s theoretical model. Both models remark on the role of deliberated rumination in posttraumatic growth and failure to progress from intrusive to deliberated rumination in posttraumatic stress, but the proposed one is more parsimonious and assumes subjective severity as an antecedent to basic belief changes. These conclusions must be considered in light of limitations that a cross-sectional design and the correlational nature of the statistical analysis carried out impose.Highlights of the article Role of subjective severity, change of basic beliefs, social sharing of emotion, and rumination on posttraumatic stress and growth were modeled from responses of people affected by the April 1–2, 2014, northern Chilean earthquakes.Posttraumatic stress goes through negative changes in basic beliefs, intrusive rumination, and deliberated rumination.Posttraumatic growth is achieved from positive changes in basic beliefs and deliberated rumination.Deliberated rumination and moving from intrusive to deliberated rumination appear as cornerstones in posttraumatic processing.

Generating Subjective Theories After a Disaster: The Role of Personality

“…These studies confirm the differential role of intrusive and deliberate rumination as responses to stress. Similarly, a study of people who experienced two earthquakes followed by tsunami alerts that hit northern Chile on April 1 and 2, 2014 (Leal-Soto, Carmona-Halty, & Ferrer-Urbina, 2016) not only confirmed the role of deliberate rumination in posttraumatic growth, but also established that it can occur directly as a result of deliberate rumination or through the transition from intrusive to deliberate rumination, as the model advanced by Calhoun et al (2010) suggests.…”

Posttraumatic growth after earthquake: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Out of the 21 included studies, eight were carried out on children and adolescents (An et al, 2017; Andrades et al, 2018; Chen & Wu, 2017; Hafstad et al, 2010; Wu et al, 2015; Yoshida et al, 2016; Zhou & Wu, 2016), 12 included adult population (Cao et al, 2018; Chen et al, 2015; Eren-Kocak et al, 2014; Garcia et al, 2016; García et al, 2014; Guo et al, 2017; Leal-Soto et al, 2016; Marshall et al, 2015; Martínez et al, 2014; Meng et al, 2018; Michélsen et al, 2017; Xu & Liao, 2011), and one was conducted on all the participants regardless of age (Cao et al, 2018). A total of five studies were conducted 1 year after the earthquake (Andrades et al, 2018; Chen et al, 2015; Marshall et al, 2015; Xu & Liao, 2011), 17 studies assessed the level of PTG more than 1 year after the earthquake (An et al, 2017; Cao et al, 2018; Chen & Wu, 2017; Chen et al, 2015; Eren-Kocak et al, 2014; Garcia et al, 2016; García et al, 2014; Guo et al, 2017; Hafstad et al, 2010; Leal-Soto et al, 2016; Michélsen et al, 2017; Wu et al, 2015; Yoshida et al, 2016; Zhou & Wu, 2016), and two studies assessed the level of PTG after less than 12 months since the earthquake (Chen & Wu, 2017; Meng et al, 2018). The range of PTG in the included studies varied between 16.50 and 74.41 (Table 1).…”

Posttraumatic Growth in Adolescent Survivors of Earthquake, Tsunami, and Liquefaction in Palu Indonesia: A Phenomenological Study

“…However, there is a tendency in some people that the rumination process is more intrusive than deliberate. 20 This is why, after experiencing a traumatic event, people show a positive and negative direction. People that experienced a traumatic event were not asked to remember the event.…”