Violence and posttraumatic change (PTC)

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which Canadian victims and survivors of violent crime describe and make sense of their posttraumatic experience(s).

This qualitative study drew on open-ended responses from a mixed methods online survey with Canadian victims and survivors of violent crime (N = 435). Participants in the online survey identified as women (n = 335), men (n = 95), or two-spirit, nonbinary, or gender queer (n = 5); and had experienced partner violence (35%, n = 154), sexual violence (32%, n = 141), homicide or other violent death of a family member (22%, n = 96); or other types of violence (10%, n = 44). Additionally, in-depth narrative interviews were completed with a subsample of survey participants (n = 71).

Analyses resulted in multiple themes organized into three broad categories: (a) negative posttraumatic changes, (b) positive posttraumatic changes, and (c) resistance to the language of posttraumatic growth.

Results suggest the importance of approaching the posttraumatic experience with a focus on perceptions of change rather than growth. The concept of "posttraumatic change" is more responsive to the dynamic process of change that victims and survivors of violence experience, which is often difficult to frame with language focused exclusively on stress or growth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).