Advancing Our Understanding of Posttraumatic Growth by Considering Event Centrality

Research on posttraumatic growth (PTG) has been plagued by inconsistencies and small effect sizes. We hypothesized that relationships between PTG and other psychological variables would become stronger and more consistent with expectations when we limited analyses to only adverse events construed as central to one's identity. The results supported the hypothesis. Comparing our results to those from a recent meta-analysis on PTG, the relationships between PTG, depression, and positive affect were stronger when examining only events central to identity. Additionally, previously nonsignificant correlations with anxiety, global distress, and physical health became significant in the expected directions. Lastly, a formerly puzzling positive correlation between PTG and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms became nonsignificant. In stark contrast, limiting analyses to only events meeting the DSM-IV A1 criterion did not produce similar results. Future PTG studies should exclude events that fail to cause disruption in respondents' core beliefs to better separate coping behaviors from PTG.