Gratitude and personal functioning among earthquake survivors in Indonesia

Abstract

This study examined the potential role of gratitude as a protective factor against posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptomatology and global distress (GD) in the wake of disasters. Using longitudinal methodology, we assessed positive coping, gratitude, PTS symptomatology, and GD among 310 survivors of the 2009 Padang earthquake in Indonesia five and eight months after the disaster. Psychological hardiness and neuroticism were also measured at baseline. A general prototype model was constructed to predict scores on each of the dependent variables (GD and PTS symptomatology) at both time points. Hardiness and neuroticism were associated with GD and PTS at Time 1, but gratitude and positive coping had concurrent associations with these variables at Time 2. The unique association between gratitude and impairment at Time 2 suggests that it may play a role in adjustment to extreme disaster, but that it takes time to do so.