Richard G Tedeschi

University of North Carolina at Charlotte | UNC Charlotte · Department of Psychology

Introduction Exposure to trauma among U.S. military veterans occurs at a high rate, often resulting in continued difficulty with emotional adjustment and a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present study provides data from 184 U.S. military veterans who completed a manualized posttraumatic-growth oriented training program durin...

Despite increasing recognition that positive psychological changes or posttraumatic growth (PTG) may develop after highly stressful or traumatic events, contemporary population-based data on the epidemiology of PTG in high-risk samples such as U.S. military veterans are lacking. Additionally, in light of emerging evidence suggesting an 8-factor mod...

Posttraumatic growth is a process and an outcome found in the struggle with highly stressful events. In this process, survivors of trauma recognize important positive personal transformations, yielding five types of changes: a greater appreciation of life, a sense of personal strength, better relationships with others, new possibilities in life, an...

Background: After experiencing trauma, people often report both negative and positive changes, which can be operationally defined as posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD). However, there is no brief measure for assessing both posttraumatic changes simultaneously. Objective: This study describes the short form of the exp...

Purpose The present study examined the joint impact of coping and rumination after trauma on posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) based on the PTG model. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2017 and May 2018. A sample of 253 individuals, who had experienced a traumatic event in the last two year...

Many patients with cancer report positive changes often referred to as posttraumatic growth (PTG). Some of these self-reported PTG may represent maladaptive illusions created by individuals to cope with the illness. A recently established Posttraumatic Growth and Depreciation Inventory – Expanded version (PTGDI-X) includes both PTG and posttraumati...

Many patients with cancer report positive changes often refer to as posttraumatic growth (PTG). Some of these self-reported PTG may represent maladaptive illusions created by individuals to cope with the illness. A recently established Post-traumatic Growth and Depreciation Inventory – Expanded version (PTGDI-X) includes both PTG and post-traumatic...

This study examined the relationships between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) across 10 countries and assessed the factorial invariance of the standardized inventory assessing PTG and PTD, the PTGDI-X, the expansion of the PTGI-X (Tedeschi et al., 2017). We also investigated the roles of social and cognitive factors...

This chapter explores the concept of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and its role in the aftermath of natural and technological disasters. PTG is defined as positive life changes experienced as a result of struggling with a highly stressful or traumatic life experience (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Disasters are devastating disruptions to individuals’ cor...

Previous research has examined emotion regulation (ER) and trauma in the context of psychopathology, yet little research has examined ER in posttraumatic growth (PTG), the experience of positive psychological change following a traumatic event. ER typically involves decreasing negative affect by engaging (e.g. reappraisal) or disengaging (e.g. dist...

Background: Previous studies have found that rumination and challenge to core beliefs may have a predictive effect on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) among different samples. In addition, there is some evidence that these variables have different effects on PTSD and PTG, although the latter construct has been the...

Posttraumatic Growth reworks and overhauls the seminal 2006 Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth. It provides a wide range of answers to questions concerning knowledge of posttraumatic growth (PTG) theory, its synthesis and contrast with other theories and models, and its applications in diverse settings. The book starts with an overview of the history...

Objective: This longitudinal study tested the effectiveness of a group intervention designed to facilitate Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). The effects of group participation on components of the PTG model were also explored. Methods: Sample consisted of 205 women diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer who were either assigned to an intervention...

The present study sought to investigate how alexithymia (a deficit in identifying and describing emotions) may hinder the development of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and contribute to ongoing distress. Participants were 250 undergraduate college students who had experienced a highly stressful event in the past six months. Regression analyses were con...

This study evaluates the effect of a psycho-educational intervention about posttraumatic growth (PTG) among Japanese adolescents. Study 1 examined whether those who learned about changes related to stress would report higher growth than those who did not. Study 2 examined whether those who learned about PTG perceived more growth than those who lear...

Spiritual Change (SC) is one of 5 domains of posttraumatic growth (PTG). The current Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) assesses this area of growth with only 2 items, one focusing on religiosity and the other focusing on spiritual understanding. The addition of 4 newly developed spiritual-existential change (SEC) items, creating an expanded PTG...

This book examines the range of new theories, research, and applications in the most generative areas of positive psychology, at the dawn of a new wave of positive psychology scholarship—one that is increasingly sensitive to real-world issues, adversity, culture, and context. In the 17 years since the inception of the movement, the field of positiv...

Posttraumatic growth is a process and an outcome found in the struggle with highly stressful events. In this process, survivors of trauma recognize important positive personal transformations, yielding five types of changes: a greater appreciation of life, a sense of personal strength, better relationships with others, new possibilities in life, an...

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) is frequently used to assess positive changes following a traumatic event. The aim of the study is to examine the factor structure and the latent mean invariance of PTGI. A sample of 205 (Mage = 54.3, SD = 10.1) women diagnosed with breast cancer and 456 (Mage = 34.9, SD = 12.5) adults who had experienced a...

Background: Breast cancer can be perceived as a traumatic event with disturbing effects on psychological domains such as depression, anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. In contrast, growing evidence has shown that posttraumatic growth can occur as a result of coping with breast cancer. Challenging the assumptive world, deliberate ruminatio...

Trauma can be understood as a set of circumstances that not only produces immediate physiological challenges to the systems that help people deal with danger and survive, but also violate people's views of the world and their place in it. The concept of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as moral injury fits within a broader framework of underst...

A exposição a situações adversas, potencialmente indutoras de uma situação de stress inadaptada, pode constituir-se como um desafio percusor de mudanças psicológicas positivas. Estes benefícios percebidos resultantes do coping individual no confronto com o acontecimento traumático são denominados por crescimento pós-traumático (CPT) (Tedeschi & Cal...

A traumatic event can have a massive impact on survivors’ lives. The intrusive and deliberate rumination are frequently used to cope with the traumatic event. In literature is growing evidence of a positive association between deliberate rumination and perception of positive changes or posttraumatic growth. The aim of this study is to validate the...

This chapter reviews the literature that shows that growth occurs in the aftermath of a variety of life crises, and summarizes ways of understanding how this growth occurs. The chapter coined the term posttraumatic growth to describe the experience of positive changes that occur as the result of the struggle with major life crises. The kinds of pos...

Posttraumatic growth (PTG), psychological growth as a result of personal struggle with trauma, is hypothesized to occur when a highly stressful life event, such as a natural disaster, forces people to reexamine their core beliefs. To the authors' knoweldge, the present study is the first investigation in Japanese people examining the role of core b...

Cancer survivors may experience posttraumatic growth (PTG), positive psychological changes resulting from highly stressful events; however, the longitudinal course of PTG is poorly understood. The purpose of the present study was to determine trajectories of PTG in breast cancer survivors and associated characteristics. Women (N = 653) participatin...

Background: Quality of life (QoL) may often be reduced in survivors of a natural disaster. This paper investigated how posttraumatic growth (PTG), depression and posttraumatic stress interact and independently predict QoL in a longitudinal study of disaster survivors. Methods: A total of 58 Norwegian adults who were present in Khao Lak, Thailand at...

Abstract from a Presentation at 16th World Congress of Psycho-Oncology and Psychosocial Academy 20 – 24 October Lisbon, Portugal

The present study examined posttraumatic growth (PTG) – positive psychological changes that may occur as a result of struggle with a highly stressful life event – and its associations with stress responses in bereaved young adults. It was hypothesized that the PTG domains that are more likely to occur among the bereaved (e.g., appreciation of life)...

Jayawickreme and Blackie provided an interesting look at post-traumatic growth and personality characteristics. Unfortunately, their paper perpetuated some misunderstandings about work in the area and relied heavily on one methodologically problematic study in their critique. The target article failed to reflect the current evidence concerning self...

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is defined as 'positive psychological change experienced as a result of a struggle with highly challenging life circumstances'. The current study examined change in PTG over 2 years following breast cancer diagnosis and variables associated with PTG over time. Women recently diagnosed with breast cancer completed surveys...

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) is the most commonly used measure of positive psychological change that can result from negotiating a traumatic experience. While the PTGI has strong internal reliability, validity studies are still sparse. The present research details trauma survivors' understanding of items comprising the PTGI in order to...

In this chapter, the authors assume that the reader is familiar with the concept of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and they will focus on the application of this concept in clinical work. In earlier discussions of these applications, the authors have made it clear that they are not proposing a new form of treatment, but rather looking for ways to integ...

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) was examined in Norwegian parents two and a half years after being exposed, together with their children, to the 2004 South East Asian tsunami. Parents reported on their own and their children's disaster exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) 10 months post disaster. Children reported their own PTSS. Multiple r...

There is evidence suggesting that the struggle with highly challenging circumstances (e.g., earthquakes, fires, major transportation accidents) can produce significant positive changes for persons coping with trauma. The authors have termed these changes "posttraumatic growth" (PTG). PTG is positive change that an individual experiences as a result...

The Concept of Posttraumatic GrowthThe Process of Posttraumatic GrowthWays Clinicians can Facilitate the Process of Posttraumatic GrowthConclusion

Disruptions to core beliefs, rumination, and finding meaning have been associated with the development of posttraumatic distress (Janoff–Bulman, 1992, 2006). These variables have also contributed to the development of posttraumatic growth, which is the experience of a positive life change as the result of a traumatic experience (Tedeschi & Calhoun,...

An acute leukemia diagnosis can be an extremely stressful experience for most patients. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is positive psychological change experienced following a struggle with highly challenging life circumstances. The current study is the first longitudinal investigation of predictors of PTG and distress in adult acute leukemia patients...

Working with Real People Facing Real Crises: Recommendations for Clinical WorkFuture Research

A Surprise AttackPlan for TreatmentPosttraumatic Clinical Work with JaneWhat This Case Tells UsA Surprise Result

Culture and PTGSociocultural Influences and PTG: Distal InfluencesThe Model of Posttraumatic GrowthCultural Influences and the PTG Model: Specific ConsiderationsA Clinical Footnote: The Proximate Culture of Psychotherapy

A model of the processes leading to posttraumatic growth and to life satisfaction following exposure to trauma was tested. Two types of repeated thought, deliberate and intrusive, posttraumatic symptoms, posttraumatic growth, and meaning in life, were assessed as predictors of general life satisfaction. Challenges to core beliefs were shown to be r...

Despite a growing body of literature examining posttraumatic growth (PTG; positive change resulting from the struggle with trauma) in adult populations from various cultures, the emerging research base involving youth includes few studies exploring the construct in youth from Eastern cultures. This study examined PTG and perceived growth in the abs...

Combat veterans and their families face significant challenges not only to their abilities to cope, but often to their fundamental belief systems. Traumatic events represent assaults on core beliefs, yet at times, produce cognitive processing that can ultimately result in personal transformations called posttraumatic growth (PTG). Clinicians can ut...

To examine the effects of self-reported attentional bias on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and posttraumatic growth (PTG) through the potential mediator of cancer-related rumination. A cross-sectional survey design was used and women with breast cancer (N=170) were recruited. Attentional biases, cancer-related ruminations, PTSD sympt...

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory is a frequently used self-report measure of posttraumatic growth. It was adapted recently to a short form with preliminary evidence in support of its psychometric properties. The current survey study replicates evidence for the short form's factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and concurrent validit...

The relationship of challenge to core beliefs, rumination, disclosure, and some sociocultural elements to posttraumatic growth (PTG) were explored. Participants were college students enrolled in psychology classes who reported having experienced a stressful event within the past 2 years and who completed measures in groups. Findings suggested that...

The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, currently under development for the U.S. Army, will include a component designed to increase the possibilities for posttraumatic growth in the aftermath of combat. In this article, we briefly review studies that provide evidence for this phenomenon in combat veterans, and we suggest elements that such a pr...

Cognitive processes in the aftermath of experiencing a major life stressor play an important role in the impact of the event on the person. Intrusive thoughts about the event are likely to be associated with continued distress, while deliberate rumination, aimed at understanding and problem-solving, should be predictive of posttraumatic growth (PTG...

Recent theory and research have drawn attention to the need to better understand the positive changes, termed posttraumatic growth, that often occur in bereaved individuals; even as negative emotions related to grief persist. We describe five dimensions of posttraumatic growth and present a model for understanding how the loss of a close other can...

Positive changes (posttraumatic growth [PTG]) and negative changes (posttraumatic depreciation [PTD]) were assessed using the PTGI-42 with persons reporting changes from a stressful event. PTG and PTD were uncorrelated, and PTG was much greater than PTD. PTG was positively related to disruption of core beliefs and recent deliberate rumination and n...

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the direction and magnitude of gender differences in self-reported posttraumatic growth. Results from 70 studies (N = 16,076) revealed a small to moderate gender difference (g = .27, 95% CI = .21 −.32), with women reporting more posttraumatic growth than men. Moderator analyses were then conducted to identif...

The growth of the "positive psychology" movement reflects increased scientific and lay interest in the relation of positive phenomena to mental and physical health and the corresponding potential for interventions that promote positive feelings, thoughts, and experiences to improve health and well-being. In this article, we (1) consider research on...

We disagree with several conclusions reached by Coyne and Tennen, as well as their interpretation of specific findings. First, we dispute that researchers have advanced the claim that positive thinking can cure disease. Second, we question their exclusive focus on cancer-related mortality, when strong cumulative evidence suggests that optimism is r...

The view that the struggle with major challenges can lead to significant positive changes is present in ancient myths, is a theme in literature, and is reflected in some of the major world religions. Heroes encounter severe hardships and emerge transformed and better persons, and believers who suffer greatly are sanctified through their martyrdom....

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On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Central Gulf Coast region of the United States. The storm and its aftermath resulted in the most severe, damaging, and costly natural and unnatural disaster in the nation's history—as evidenced by the size of the region affected, the loss of life, the extensive destruction of property, a...

This study examined the effects of disclosure about a highly stressful event and perceived social reactions to the disclosure on posttraumatic growth (PTG) and distress. Participants (395 Japanese university students) reported on their most traumatic life event that had occurred less than 10 years previously. Those who had disclosed about their eve...

A short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-SF) is described. A sample of 1351 adults who had completed the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) in previous studies provided the basis for item selection. The resulting 10-item form includes two items from each of the five subscales of the original PTGI, selected on the basis of loading...

Posttraumatic growth (PTG; positive change resulting from the struggle with trauma) was examined among children impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C-R) assessed PTG at two time points, 12 (T1) and 22 months (T2) posthurricane. The PTGI-C-R demonstrated good reliability. Analyses focused on t...

Stressful events that disrupt the assumptive world can force people to make cognitive changes to accommodate these highly stressful experiences. As fundamental assumptions are reestablished, many people report changes and experiences that reflect posttraumatic growth (PTG). The present research describes the development of the Core Beliefs Inventor...