Citation

Weinberg M. Health Soc. Work 2018; 43(3): 147-154.

Affiliation

Michael Weinberg, PhD, is head of MA and supplementary studies, School of Social Work, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Avenue, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel; e-mail: michaelweinberg10@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/hsw/hly014

PMID

29897454

Abstract

The study reported in this article examined the relationship between psychosocial functioning and tendency to forgive, social support, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms of terror survivors (N = 108). Structural equation modeling was used to examine whether PTSD symptoms mediated the association between tendency to forgive, social support, and psychosocial functioning. The findings demonstrated that the association between tendency to forgive and psychosocial functioning was mediated exclusively by PTSD symptoms, whereas the association between social support and psychosocial functioning was partially mediated by PTSD symptoms. The study reinforces the importance of addressing trauma survivors' psychosocial functioning as an emotional state associated with tendency to forgive, social support, and PTSD symptoms. In addition, the findings suggest that when treating trauma survivors, therapists should be aware of PTSD not only as an emotional consequence of trauma, but also as a mediator of numerous emotional and cognitive coping mechanisms.

Language: en