2011 Theses Doctoral

That's Not What Your Friends Say: Does Self-reported Posttraumatic Growth Translate into Friend Ratings of Improvement?

Goorin, Laura

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is a prolific construct under study within both trauma and positive psychology literature alike. Many of these studies rely predominantly on cross-sectional, retrospective self-report data. Recent studies have attempted to subject PTG to more rigorous scientific standards of measurement. In this study, we examined posttraumatic growth measured longitudinally among survivors of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack, in order to explore whether participants' reports of posttraumatic growth were associated with, supported or contradicted by friend ratings of improvement. In this context, participant-reported posttraumatic growth was consistently linked with friend ratings of deteriorating functioning, providing evidence that posttraumatic growth is undermined by friend ratings. These findings suggest that self-reported PTG may inadequately predict functioning as rated by alternative, more objective measures, and that PTG may reflect negative psychological adjustment.