Posttraumatic Growth in Parents of Infants Hospitalized in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

This study examined existential emotion predispositions to guilt, shame, and fear of death and stress-coping strategies as predictors of posttraumatic growth in parents of infants hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (mothers, N = 85; fathers, N = 73). Existential emotions and coping strategies explained 46% of the variance in posttraumatic growth in mothers and 20% of the variance in fathers. Quadratic shame and positive reappraisal in mothers and positive reappraisal in fathers made unique contributions to the variance in posttraumatic growth. Fear of death and guilt relationships with posttraumatic growth in fathers were mediated by positive reappraisal. Coping by positive reappraisal was a stronger predictor of posttraumatic growth than existential emotion predispositions; however, the latter were relevant, and there were important gender differences.