Trauma Resilience on Campus: The Moderating Effect of Developmental Assets in the Link between Trauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Symptomatology in College Emerging Adults

Abstract

Background: Existing literature establishes several patterns regarding exposure to severe stressors—most people experience one or more traumatic events, most people are resilient following such events, and people are more likely to develop posttraumatic symptomatology if experiencing repeated traumas. However, questions about protective factors remain as researchers work to clarify mechanisms of resilience. Here, we argue the developmental assets framework is an apt model for conceptualizing resilience in emerging adults in college/university settings, a high risk population for both trauma exposure and subsequent distress. We hypothesized that asset-richness (i.e., total scores on the developmental assets inventory) would moderate the link between trauma exposure frequency and severity of posttrauma symptomatology. Methods: We surveyed a convenience sample of emerging adults at a private religiously-affiliated university in the Midwestern United States (n = 526) regarding trauma exposure (THQ), perceived developmental assets (CAMPUS), and experience of posttrauma symptoms (PCL-S). We ran correlations, linear regression, and moderator analysis using the PROCESS “Model 1” macro and the CAHOST Johnson-Neyman region visualizer. Results: We found that posttraumatic symptom severity was positively correlated with frequency of trauma exposure (r = .30, p < .001) and negatively correlated with asset-richess (r = -.26, p < .001), and that asset-richness statistically significantly moderated the link between trauma exposure and posttrauma symptoms (F(3, 522) = 31.87, p < .001, R2 = .16). Discussion: The developmental assets framework appears to be an effective model of resilience for emerging adults in college/university settings, and we encourage future research to further clarify these connections.