Posttraumatic Growth and Posttraumatic Depreciation as Predictors of Psychological Adjustment
Open accessAbstract
Informed by current trauma literature, this study explored the relationships between posttraumatic growth (PTG), posttraumatic depreciation (PTD), and other posttrauma outcomes including well-being, psychological flourishing, and psychological distress. The predictive utility of PTG and PTD was also examined. The sample comprised 104 trauma survivors (28 community members and 76 university students) who completed the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory–42 and several outcome measures. As expected, PTD showed strong linear correlations with well-being, flourishing and distress, and emerged as a significant predictor of scores on such measures. However, PTG showed negligible correlations with well-being, flourishing, and distress. This reaffirms that PTG and PTD measure conceptually distinct and independent dimensions of experience, which has implications for therapeutic practice.
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PTG and PTD demonstrate distinct associations with well-being.
“This independence is supported by international data showing that PTG and PTD are only minimally correlated [13] and demonstrate distinct associations with well-being [19, 20].”
From The coexistence and trajectories of posttraumatic growth and depreciation: a 36-month longitudinal qualitative narrative analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [19]
PTD is consistently linked to distress and posttraumatic stress symptoms.
“While PTD is consistently linked to distress [19] and posttraumatic stress symptoms [13], the relationship between PTG and these measures remains non-linear or equivocal [5, 21].”
From The coexistence and trajectories of posttraumatic growth and depreciation: a 36-month longitudinal qualitative narrative analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [19]
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- Authors
- Barrington, A., & Shakespeare-Finch, J.
- Affiliations
- Queensland University of Technology (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Barrington, Allysa
- Venue
- Journal of Loss and Trauma
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-03-18
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 429-443
- ISSN
- 1532-5024 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-5032
- OpenAlex
- W1543136941
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 2.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- eprints.qut.edu.au
- Locations
- Journal of Loss and Trauma (publishedVersion)
- QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Faculty of Health; Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
- Keywords
- posttraumatic growth, psychological adjustment, psychological well-being, psychological flourishing, psychological distress, trauma survivors, university students, community members
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