TY - JOUR PY - 2015// TI - Association between virtues and posttraumatic growth: preliminary evidence from a Chinese community sample after earthquakes JO - PeerJ A1 - Duan, Wenjie A1 - Guo, Pengfei SP - e883 EP - e883 VL - 3 IS - N2 - OBJECTIVE. Relationship, vitality, and conscientiousness are three fundamental virtues that have been recently identified as important individual differences to health, well being, and positive development. This cross-sectional study attempted to explore the relationship between the three constructs and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in three directions, including indirect trauma samples without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), direct trauma samples without PTSD, and direct trauma samples with PTSD.

METHODS. A total of 340 community participants from Sichuan Province, Mainland China involved in the study, most of which experienced Wenchuan and Lushan Earthquake. Participants were required to complete the self-reported questionnaire packages at one time point for obtaining their scores on virtues (Chinese Virtues Questionnaire), PTSD (PTSD Checklist-Specific), and PTG (Post-traumatic Growth Inventory-Chinese).

RESULTS. Significant and positive correlations between the three virtues and PTG were identified (r =.39-.56; p <.01). Further regression analysis by stepwise method reveled that: in the indirect trauma samples, vitality explained 32% variance of PTG. In reference to the direct trauma sample without PTSD, both relationship and conscientiousness explained 32% variance of PTG, whereas in the direct trauma sample with PTSD, only conscientiousness accounted for 31% the variance in PTG.

CONCLUSION.This cross-sectional investigation partly revealed the roles of different virtues in trauma context.

FINDINGS suggest important implications for strengths-based treatment.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 2167-8359 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.883 ID - ref1 ER -