Does perceived post-traumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic reflect actual positive changes?

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

People commonly report positive changes following stressful experiences (perceived posttraumatic growth; PPTG), yet whether PPTG validly reflects positive changes remains unestablished.

Design and methods

We tested the extent to which COVID-19 pandemic-related PPTG relates to positive changes in corresponding psychosocial resources in a national US sample participating in a five wave study (T1-T5), focusing here on T2-T5: ns = 712-860. We examined correlations between resource change (both latent and observed difference scores) and PPTG at each occasion and conducted structural equation models to separate occasion-specific and stable (traitlike) PPTG variance. We related changes in resources to occasion-specific and stable PPTG components.

SUBMITTER: Park CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10314967 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature