Posttraumatic Growth in Families Following Burn Injury: Prevalence and Discrepancy in Patient-Caregiver Pairs

Burn injuries cause physical and psychological trauma to patients and impose caregiving and emotional burdens on their families. Despite these challenges, both patients and caregivers may experience posttraumatic growth (PTG). Using baseline cross-sectional data from 234 patient-family caregiver pairs recruited from burn units across 10 hospitals in China, this study provides a dyad-informed characterization of PTG at the family level, including PTG in patient-caregiver pairs and within-dyad PTG discrepancy. Participants completed assessments of PTG, psychological distress, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and perceived social support. Patients and caregivers reported comparable PTG levels (53.2 vs 51.2). Social support, injury characteristics, and surgery were associated with PTG in both groups; patient income and caregiver distress were group-specific correlates. Within-dyad PTG differences related to social support, time since injury, appearance concerns, and caregiver stress. Findings underscore the prevalence and both shared and distinct characteristics of PTG in patients with burn injuries and family caregivers, and suggest that strengthening social support may promote positive change in both members of the dyad. These first-time dyad-informed findings provide descriptive evidence and hypothesis-generating signals to inform future longitudinal and dyadic modeling.