Posttraumatic Growth in the Lives of Young Adult Trauma Survivors: Relationships with Cumulative Adversity, Narrative Reconstruction, and Survivor Missions.

Abstract

An important shift in the literature on post-trauma outcomes has occurred as researchers have begun to investigate positive life changes or posttraumatic growth (PTG). However, most existing research on PTG is overly psychological and overlooks important factors—related to social context, intersectional identities, structural systems of privilege and oppression, and cumulative adversity—that impact the development of growth.

This mixed-methods dissertation draws upon data from 46 life story interviews and six survey instruments. The quantitative data include measures of posttraumatic growth, trauma, major (sub-trauma) life events, chronic stressors, sexual harassment, and discrimination, as well as demographic information. The sample consists of students and recent graduates of a large university, who have experienced trauma and who self-identify as having grown from the adversity in their lives.

This dissertation follows a three-article format. The first article is a quantitative examination of various correlates of posttraumatic growth—particularly, cumulative adversity, trauma type, and narrative coherence. As hypothesized, narrative coherence is positively associated with PTG. However, contrary to expectations, cumulative adversity has a linear—not curvilinear—relationship with posttraumatic growth. I demonstrate that members of less privileged social groups experience higher levels of cumulative adversity, which is, in turn, positively correlated with PTG.

In the second article, I distinguish between three categories of trauma survivors, based upon their levels of narrative coherence and posttraumatic growth, and I present an exemplar from each category. Using inferential statistics, I investigate differences between each category, and I qualitatively examine numerous factors that facilitate the narrative reconstruction processes of trauma survivors.

Finally, in the third article, I use grounded theory techniques to explore one understudied form of posttraumatic growth: the development of a survivor mission. I demonstrate that there are numerous forms of, and motives for, survivor missions, that survivor helpers believe that they have specialized knowledge and skills to use on behalf of other trauma survivors, and that survivor helpers benefit from their survivor missions.

Together, these three articles make numerous methodological, sociological, and social work contributions to the sub-fields of narrative coherence, trauma recovery, resilience, empowerment, identity, cumulative adversity, social inequality, social change, and posttraumatic growth.