Prioritizing Positivity, Styles of Rumination, Coping Strategies, and Posttraumatic Growth: Examining Their Patterns and Correlations in a Prospective Study.

Mariusz Zięba,Katarzyna Wiecheć,Michał J Zięba,Natalia E Wójcik

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.842979

Abstract

ObjectivesA growing number of studies indicate that coping with the experience of a crisis event, which causes a breach in the individual’s fundamental beliefs regarding the world and his/her place in it, can result in posttraumatic growth. Positive emotions can have an undoing effect on negative emotional arousal and broaden an individual’s scope of action, and they can foster posttraumatic growth. This study aimed to examine relations between prioritizing positivity, styles of rumination, coping strategies, and posttraumatic growth.MethodsOne hundred and sixty-four Polish adults took part in the study, filling out questionnaires to measure prioritizing positivity, hope, and self-efficacy. Twelve to fifteen months later, 104 of them accepted the invitation to the second part of the study. The participants reported the intensity of rumination associated with the most critical event in their lives, which took place between the first and second stages of the study and the coping strategies they used. Posttraumatic growth and life satisfaction were also measured.ResultsResults from hierarchical regressions found that higher levels of prioritizing positivity, deliberate ruminations, and religious coping and lower level of intrusive ruminations were associated with posttraumatic growth. The results also indicate that self-esteem was a significant predictor of life satisfaction.ConclusionsThe results of the prospective study confirm that individual differences in prioritizing positivity can relate to a process of posttraumatic growth. Prioritizing positivity was associated with the use of an active coping strategy and deliberate but not intrusive ruminations. Previous studies on the role of prioritizing positivity have focused on the impact on the level of wellbeing of seeking positive emotions in everyday life. Our results show the importance of prioritizing positivity in coping with stress and trauma. These results can be used to design effective psychological intervention techniques to support people experiencing trauma and psychological crises. The results also indicate that life satisfaction has different predictors from posttraumatic growth.

Highlights

A growing number of studies indicate that the process of coping with the experience of a traumatic or crisis event, which causes a breach in the individual’s assumptive world and fundamental beliefs (Janoff-Bulman, 1992, 2004), can result in posttraumatic growth (Linley and Joseph, 2004; Tedeschi et al, 2018; Taku et al, 2021)
In the first step of the analysis, we examined whether prioritizing positivity correlated with other study variables measured in the first stage
We considered relationships between dependent variables: posttraumatic growth and life satisfaction

Summary

Introduction

A growing number of studies indicate that the process of coping with the experience of a traumatic or crisis event, which causes a breach in the individual’s assumptive world and fundamental beliefs (Janoff-Bulman, 1992, 2004), can result in posttraumatic growth (Linley and Joseph, 2004; Tedeschi et al, 2018; Taku et al, 2021). The theoretical model of posttraumatic growth (Tedeschi et al, 2018) includes pre-trauma factors (demographic characteristics, individual differences, mental status and pre-trauma assumptive world, and core beliefs), characteristics of the potentially disruptive (seismic) event, challenges to core beliefs, ruminative thoughts, managing emotional stress and coping, and self-disclosure. All these elements are interconnected and can interact. The authors of the concept of posttraumatic growth refer to the definition of trauma presented by Janoff-Bulman (1992) as an event that represents significant challenges to individuals’ ways of understanding the world and their place within it (Tedeschi and Calhoun, 2004) Such an event undermines person’s previously positive core beliefs that the world is benevolent and meaningful and that the self is worthy. These changes can be positive or negative, leading to posttraumatic growth or posttraumatic depreciation (Baker et al, 2008; Cann et al, 2010; Taku et al, 2021)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion