TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Perceived and actual posttraumatic growth in religiousness and spirituality following disasters
JO  - Journal of personality
A1  - Davis, Edward B.
A1  - Van Tongeren, Daryl R.
A1  - McElroy-Heltzel, Stacey E.
A1  - Davis, Don E.
A1  - Rice, Kenneth G.
A1  - Hook, Joshua N.
A1  - Aten, Jamie D.
A1  - Park, Crystal L.
A1  - Shannonhouse, Laura
A1  - Lemke, Austin W.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - OBJECTIVE: Religious/spiritual (R/S) growth is a core domain of posttraumatic growth (PTG). However, research on R/S growth following disasters has over-relied on retrospective self-reports of growth. We therefore examined longitudinal change in religiousness/spirituality following two disasters. <br><br>METHOD: Religious survivors of Hurricanes Harvey (Study 1) and Irma (Study 2) completed measures of perceived R/S PTG, general religiousness/spirituality ("current standing"-R/S PTG), and subfacets of religiousness/spirituality (spiritual fortitude, religious motivations, and benevolent theodicies). In Study 1,451 participants responded at 1-month and 2-months postdisaster. In Study 2, participants responded within 5-days predisaster and at 1-month (N = 1,144) and 6-months postdisaster (N = 684). <br><br>RESULTS: In both studies, perceived R/S PTG was weakly related to longitudinal increases in general religiousness/spirituality and most of its subfacets, but reliable growth in any R/S outcome was rare. Additionally, Study 2 revealed evidence that actual change in psychological well-being is associated with actual (but not perceived) R/S PTG, but disaster survivors tend to exhibit declines in their R/S, spiritual fortitude, and religious motivations. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest disaster survivors are only modestly accurate in perceiving how much positive R/S change they experience following a disaster. We discuss implications for clinical practice, research, and empirical and conceptual work on PTG more broadly.<br><br>© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0022-3506
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12537
ID  - ref1
ER  -