Perceived posttraumatic growth: positive change occurring because of or despite the trauma?

Some researchers have posited that self-reports of PTG are often illusory, designed to help trauma survivors maintain positive views of the self. We examined whether participants might select an alternative, attractive option to reporting PTG that could similarly help maintain positive views of the self - reporting that the respondent experienced positive growth despite exposure to an adverse event, which we call Positive Change-Despite (PC-Despite).

In two separate studies, after asking respondents about positive change they experienced following exposure to an adverse event, we then asked about the extent to which they experienced positive change because of the adverse event (PC-Because) or despite the adverse event (PC-Despite).

We found that participants rated 40% (Study 1 - undergraduate sample) and 31% (Study 2 - first responder sample) of their positive change as PC-Despite. Further, in both studies PC-Despite scores were positively related to measures of distress and both adaptive and maladaptive coping, suggesting a link with an illusory form of PTG. In contrast, PC-Because was only related to adaptive coping.

Participants chose an attractive alternative response to reporting PTG at substantial rates, supporting the notion that many self-reports of PTG reflect motivated biases and coping processes.