Posttraumatic growth, meaning in life, and life satisfaction in response to trauma.

TLDR

The study tested a model linking trauma exposure to posttraumatic growth and life satisfaction. The authors assessed deliberate and intrusive rumination, posttraumatic symptoms, growth, and meaning in life as predictors of life satisfaction, and explored differences by trauma resolution groups. Intrusive and deliberate rumination were linked to core belief challenges, differentially predicted posttraumatic growth and distress, and both were independently and oppositely associated with meaning in life and life satisfaction, supporting the model.

Abstract

A model of the processes leading to posttraumatic growth and to life satisfaction following exposure to trauma was tested. Two types of repeated thought, deliberate and intrusive, posttraumatic symptoms, posttraumatic growth, and meaning in life, were assessed as predictors of general life satisfaction. Challenges to core beliefs were shown to be related to both intrusive and deliberate rumination. The two forms of rumination were in turn differentially related to posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic distress. Distress and posttraumatic growth were independently and oppositely related to meaning in life and to life satisfaction. Overall, the best fitting model was supportive of proposed posttraumatic growth models. Additional exploratory analyses examined participant groupings, based of self-reported category of resolution of the traumatic experience, and differences supportive of proposed underlying processes were found.