Citation

Kunst MJ. J. Trauma. Stress 2010; 23(4): 514-518.

Affiliation

Tilburg University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/jts.20556

PMID

20648563

Abstract

This study explored whether peritraumatic distress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are curvilinearly related to posttraumatic growth in victims of violence several years after victimization (Time 1; n = 678) and 6 months later (Time 2, n = 205). At both time points, curve estimation revealed linear and quadratic associations between peritraumatic distress and posttraumatic growth and quadratic associations between PTSD symptoms and posttraumatic growth. In multivariate regressions controlling for background variables, the linear peritraumatic distress and quadratic PTSD symptom terms remained significant predictors of posttraumatic growth Time 1 scores. For Time 2, the linear peritraumatic distress term remained significant, though only prior to controlling for posttraumatic growth Time 1 scores. The results suggest that peritraumatic distress enables growth after substantial time has elapsed since victimization.

Language: en