E FFECTS O F T RAUMA I NTENSITY O N P OSTTRAUMATIC G ROWTH: D EPRESSION, S OCIAL S UPPORT, C OPING AND G ENDER Jennifer Steward

T RAUMA Study of how events effect people National Comorbidity Study (Kessler, Chiu, Demler, & Walters, 2005)  60% of Men  51% of Women Aftermath  Distress  Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

P TSD R ELATIONSHIPS Common PTSD Correlates: Meta Analysis (Helgeson, Reynolds, & Tomich, 2006)  Depression  Trauma Severity  Female more likely than males Lack of Social Support has also been shown to be related to greater levels of PTSD (Ozer et. al, 2008; Brewin, Andrews & Valentine, 2000).

P OSTTRAUMATIC G ROWTH Positive consequences following trauma The ability to thrive after experiencing a traumatic event, with individuals showing an increase in emotional, cognitive and/or psychological resources. (Wild & Paivio, 2003) Two separate continuums, as opposed to two sides of the same continuum. (Borja, Callahan, & Long, 2006)  Variables can be correlates of both PTG and PTSD

C URRENT F INDINGS I N P TG Depression  Negative relationship, after two years (Helgeson, Reynolds, & Tomich, 2006) Coping  Positively related to problem- and emotion-focused coping (Linley & Joseph, 2004) Social Support- Inconsistent results Weiss (2002)- Social support predicts PTG Linley & Joseph (2004)- Does not, but satisfaction with social support does. Gender- Women are shown to experience more growth (Helgeson, Reynolds, & Tomich, 2006)

T RAUMA I NTENSITY Large amount of variance in the experience of the trauma  Literature evaluation of traumatic events  Subjective experience of the trauma “There is no single profile of a [trauma victim], as the extent and the nature of the impact varies from person to person” (Futa, Nash, Hansen, and Garbin, 2003)

T RAUMA I NTENSITY & P TG Studies have shown that events perceived as more severe were related to more PTG. (Helgeson, Reynolds, & Tomich, 2006; Morris et al., 2005)

P URPOSE O F T HE S TUDY Observe the effect trauma severity has on the relationship between PTG and depression, social support, coping strategies, and gender. Clarify the relationships with PTG

M ETHODS U SED 598 UNT students were surveyed using an online mass testing experiment through the UNT Psychology Department  All students received partial course credit for their participation Questionnaires Used  Traumatic Events Questionnaire  PTSD Checklist  Posttraumatic Growth Inventory  Brief Cope  Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology  Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support

A NALYSIS Creating trauma categories  Two different splits Median Split- Score of 25 Clinical Value- Score of 44 (Blanchard, Jones-Alexander, Buckley, & Forneris, 1996 ) Gender- Looked at mean PTGI scores for both genders are each split.

O UR F INDINGS Median Split  Depression -  Coping -  Social Support- Clinical Split  All variables showed even stronger amplification of PTG

O UR F INDINGS ( CONT.) o Gender Differences  Median split- no significant differences  Clinical split-Low trauma group = Women had more PTG High trauma group = Men had more PTG PCL Scores

W HAT I T M EANS/ C ONCLUSIONS Subjective trauma severity matters Clarification of PTG relationships in the literature Implications towards future research

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