Boals Adriel, Bedford Lee A, Callahan Jennifer L
Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Box 311280, Denton, TX 76203, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2019 Jan 15;9(1):10. doi: 10.3390/bs9010010.
Recent research has distinguished between actual posttraumatic growth (PTG) and perceived PTG. We used a prospective research design to measure both actual and perceived PTG in an attempt to replicate and extend previous findings. We examined college students ( = 64) who experienced a traumatic event between the start (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of a semester. We included three measures of change from pre- to post-trauma: (1) Actual PTG (change scores in measures of PTG domains), (2) perceived general growth (Time 2 ratings of functioning at Time 1 subtracted from actual ratings given at Time 1), and (3) perceived PTG (self-reports of PTG on the posttraumatic growth inventory). The results revealed perceived general growth and actual PTG were significantly correlated, suggesting that participants' perceptions of change were accurate. However, perceived PTG was not significantly related to either actual PTG or perceived general growth. Further, increases in actual PTG and perceived general growth were significantly related to decreases in distress and unrelated to coping. By contrast, higher levels of perceived PTG were significantly related to increases in distress and higher levels of avoidance coping. Our results suggest perceived PTG may be more of a coping process than an accurate recall of posttraumatic change.
近期研究区分了实际的创伤后成长（PTG）和感知到的PTG。我们采用前瞻性研究设计来测量实际的和感知到的PTG，试图复制并扩展先前的研究结果。我们考察了在一个学期开始（时间1）到结束（时间2）之间经历过创伤事件的大学生（n = 64）。我们纳入了三项从创伤前到创伤后的变化测量指标：（1）实际PTG（PTG各领域测量指标的变化分数），（2）感知到的总体成长（用时间2对时间1功能水平的评分减去时间1给出的实际评分），以及（3）感知到的PTG（创伤后成长量表上关于PTG的自我报告）。结果显示，感知到的总体成长与实际PTG显著相关，这表明参与者对变化的感知是准确的。然而，感知到的PTG与实际PTG或感知到的总体成长均无显著关联。此外，实际PTG和感知到的总体成长的增加与痛苦的减轻显著相关，且与应对方式无关。相比之下，较高水平的感知到的PTG与痛苦的增加以及较高水平的回避应对显著相关。我们的结果表明，感知到的PTG可能更多是一个应对过程，而非对创伤后变化的准确回忆。
