Posttraumatic growth after earthquake: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background:

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) represents a positive personal change after adverse events, such as natural disasters, including earthquake. However, the association between exposure to earthquake and level of PTG is still unknown. Thus, the aim of this systematic review and meta-analyses (MA) is to assess the level of PTG in people exposed to earthquake.

Methods:

Studies were identified via Scopus, PsycInfo, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, ProQuest, Cochran Library, Ovid, Google Scholar, OpenGrey, congress, and conferences research papers. The level of PTG was presented as mean and standard deviation. Subgroup analyses were conducted to control for the amount of time that had passed since stressor onset and age of the study population. The meta-regression was used to explore the sources of between-study heterogeneity, including sample size and age.

Results:

The MA of all 21 studies using no restrictions related to age and time of the PTG measurement since traumatic event showed low level of PTG (41.71; 95%CI = 34.26; 49.16, I²: 62.44%, p: .000). Subgroup analyses controlled for the age demonstrated that level of PTG was higher in adults (49.47; 95% CI = 42.35; 56.58, I²: 0%, p = .466) when compared to children and adolescents (35.38; 95% CI = 23.65; 47.11, I²: 69.09%, p < .00). Moreover, the pooled weight mean of PTG measured 1 year and less than 1 year since the earthquake varied between medium (46.04; 95%CI = 34.45; 57.63, I²:51.2%, p: .037) and high (59.03; 95%CI = 41.46; 76.41, I²: 0%, p: .990) levels, respectively.

Conclusion:

The results of our MA showed low level of PTG in earthquake survivors. However, the mean value of PTG in adults was higher when compared to children and adolescents. In addition, the mean PTG was found to decrease over time since traumatic events.

Keywords

Posttraumatic growth earthquake systematic review meta-analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ding

(2017). Personality and post-traumatic growth of adolescents 42 months after the Wenchuan earthquake: A mediated model. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2152.

Andrades

García

F. E.

Calonge

Martínez-Arias

(2018). Posttraumatic growth in children and adolescents exposed to the 2010 earthquake in Chile and its relationship with rumination and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(5), 1505–1517. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9885-7

Antoni

M. H.

Lehman

J. M.

Kilbourn

K. M.

Boyers

A. E.

Culver

J. L.

Alferi

S. M.

Yount

S. E.

McGregor

B. A.

Arena

P. L.

Harris

S. D.

Price

A. A.

Carver

C. S.

(2001) Cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention decreases the prevalence of depression and enhances benefit finding among women under treatment for earlystage breast cancer. Health Psychology, 20(1), 20–32.

Bates

G. W.

Trajstman

S. E.

Jackson

C. A.

(2004). Internal consistency, test-retest reliability and sex differences on the posttraumatic growth inventory in an Australian sample with trauma. Psychological Reports, 94(3), 793–794.

Benevolenza

M. A.

DeRigne

(2019). The impact of climate change and natural disasters on vulnerable populations: A systematic review of literature. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 29(2), 266–281.

Bernstein

Pfefferbaum

(2018). Posttraumatic growth as a response to natural disasters in children and adolescents. Current Psychiatry Reports, 20(5), 37.

Boscarino

J. A.

(2004). Posttraumatic stress disorder and physical illness: Results from clinical and epidemiologic studies. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1032(1), 141–153.

Brewin

C. R.

Andrews

Valentine

J. D.

(2000). Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(5), 748.

Cadell

Suarez

Hemsworth

(2015). Reliability and validity of a French version of the posttraumatic growth inventory. Open Journal of Medical Psychology, 4(2), 53.

10.

Calhoun

L. G.

Tedeschi

R. G.

(1999). Facilitating posttraumatic growth: A clinician’s guide. Routledge.

11.

Calhoun

L. G.

Tedeschi

R. G.

(2014). Handbook of posttraumatic growth: Research and practice. Routledge.

12.

Cao

Wang

Fang

Cao

Liu

Luo

Hall

B. J.

Elhai

J. D.

(2018). Patterns of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and posttraumatic growth in an epidemiological sample of Chinese earthquake survivors: A latent profile analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1549.

13.

Carlson

E. B.

Garvert

D. W.

Macia

K. S.

Ruzek

J. I.

Burling

T. A.

(2013). Traumatic stressor exposure and post-traumatic symptoms in homeless veterans. Military Medicine, 178(9), 970–973.

14.

Carlson

E. B.

Palmieri

P. A.

Field

N. P.

Dalenberg

C. J.

Macia

K. S.

Spain

D. A.

(2016). Contributions of risk and protective factors to prediction of psychological symptoms after traumatic experiences. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 69, 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2016.04.022

15.

Cerdá

(2014). Posttraumatic growth in the aftermath of a disaster: Looking for the role of gender. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 49(12), 1859–1860.

16.

Chen

(2017). Posttraumatic stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth in children and adolescents following an earthquake: A latent transition analysis. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 30(6), 583–592. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.2223810.1002/jts.22238

17.

Chen

Zhou

Zeng

(2015). Post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth: Evidence from a longitudinal study following an earthquake disaster. PLoS One, 10(6), e0127241. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127241

18.

Coulibaly

Islam

Managi

(2020). The impacts of climate change and natural disasters on agriculture in African countries. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, 4, 347–364.

19.

CRED & USAID. (2020). CRED crunch 58: Disaster year in review (2019). (Issue No. 58), 2.

20.

Eren-Kocak

Kilic

(2014). Posttraumatic growth after earthquake trauma is predicted by executive functions: A pilot study. J Nerv Ment Dis, 202(12), 859–863.

21.

Ford

J. D.

Grasso

D. J.

Elhai

J. D.

Courtois

C. A.

(2015). Posttraumatic stress disorder: Scientific and professional dimensions. Academic Press.

22.

Garcia

F. E.

Cova

Rincon

Vazquez

Paez

(2016). Coping, rumination and posttraumatic growth in people affected by an earthquake. Psicothema, 28(1), 59–65.

23.

García

F. E.

Páez-Rovira

Zurtia

G. C.

Martel

H. N.

Reyes

A. R.

(2014). Religious coping, social support and subjective severity as predictors of posttraumatic growth in people affected by the earthquake in Chile on 27/2/2010. Religions, 5(4), 1132–1145. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel5041132

24.

Guo

Xing

Wang

(2017). Coping style and posttraumatic growth among adult survivors 8 years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. Personality and Individual Differences, 111, 31–36. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.046

25.

Hafstad

G. S.

Gil-Rivas

Kilmer

R. P.

Raeder

(2010). Parental adjustment, family functioning, and posttraumatic growth among Norwegian children and adolescents following a natural disaster. Am J Orthopsychiatry, 80(2), 248–257.

26.

Heidarzadeh

Naseri

Shamshiri

Dadkhah

Rassouli

Gholchin

(2017). Evaluating the factor structure of the Persian version of posttraumatic growth inventory in cancer patients. Asian Nursing Research, 11(3), 180–186.

27.

Hein

Wilson

Lee

Rajapaksa

de Moel

Athukorala

Managi

(2019). Climate change and natural disasters: Government mitigation activities and public property demand response. Land Use Policy, 82, 436–443.

28.

Helgeson

V. S.

Reynolds

K. A.

Tomich

P. L.

(2006). A meta-analytic review of benefit finding and growth. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(5), 797.

29.

Hunter

S. B.

Smith

D. E.

(2008). Predictors of children’s understandings of death: Age, cognitive ability, death experience and maternal communicative competence. Omega-Journal of Death and Dying, 57(2), 143–162.

30.

Jin

Liu

(2014). Posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic growth among adult survivors of Wenchuan earthquake after 1 year: Prevalence and correlates. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 28(1), 67–73.

31.

Leal-Soto

Carmona-Halty

Ferrer-Urbina

(2016). Rumination in posttraumatic stress and growth after a natural disaster: A model from northern Chile 2014 earthquakes. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 7(1), 31638. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v7.31638

32.

C. K.-L.

Mertz

Loeb

(2014). Newcastle-Ottawa Scale: Comparing reviewers’ to authors’ assessments. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 14(1), 45.

33.

Marshall

E. M.

Frazier

Frankfurt

Kuijer

R. G.

(2015). Trajectories of posttraumatic growth and depreciation after two major earthquakes. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 7(2), 112–121.

34.

Martínez

F. E. G.

Reyes

A. R.

Solar

F. C.

(2014). Severity of trauma, optimism, posttraumatic growth and well-being in survivors of a natural disaster. Universitas Psychologica, 13(2), 574–584. https://dx.doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.UPSY13-2.stop

35.

Mazor

Gelkopf

Mueser

K. T.

Roe

(2016). Posttraumatic growth in psychosis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 7, 202.

36.

Meng

Han

(2018). Post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic growth among the adult survivors of the Lushan earthquake: Selecting resilience as the moderator. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 27, 524–529. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.11.016

37.

Michélsen

Therup-Svedenlöf

Backheden

Schulman

(2017). Posttraumatic growth and depreciation six years after the 2004 tsunami. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(1), 1302691. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1302691

38.

Noppe

I. C.

Noppe

L. D.

(2004). Adolescent experiences with death: Letting go of immortality. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 26(2), 146–167.

39.

Ozer

E. J.

Best

S. R.

Lipsey

T. L.

Weiss

D. S.

(2003). Predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder and symptoms in adults: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 52.

40.

Park

C. L.

Cohen

L. H.

Murch

R. L.

(1996). Assessment and prediction of stress-related growth. Journal of Personality, 64(1), 71–105.

41.

Prati

Pietrantoni

(2014). Italian adaptation and confirmatory factor analysis of the full and the short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 19(1), 12–22.

42.

Riffle

O. M.

Lewis

P. R.

Tedeschi

R. G.

(2020). Posttraumatic growth after disasters. In Schulenberg

S. E.

(Ed.), Positive psychological approaches to disaster (pp. 155–167). Springer.

43.

Sawyer

Ayers

Field

A. P.

(2010). Posttraumatic growth and adjustment among individuals with cancer or HIV/AIDS: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(4), 436–447.

44.

Sheldon

K. M.

Kasser

(2001). Getting older, getting better? Personal strivings and psychological maturity across the life span. Developmental Psychology, 37(4), 491.

45.

Silva

T. L. G. D.

Donat

J. C.

Gauer

Kristensen

C. H.

(2016). Posttraumatic growth measures: Translation and adaptation of three self-report instruments to Brazilian Portuguese. Archives of Clinical Psychiatry (São Paulo), 43(3), 47–50.

46.

Splevins

Cohen

Bowley

Joseph

(2010). Theories of posttraumatic growth: Cross-cultural perspectives. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 15(3), 259–277.

47.

Stang

(2010). Critical evaluation of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for the assessment of the quality of nonrandomized studies in meta-analyses. European Journal of Epidemiology, 25(9), 603–605.

48.

Stroup

D. F.

Berlin

J. A.

Morton

S. C.

Olkin

Williamson

G. D.

Rennie

Moher

Becker

B. J.

Sipe

T. A.

Thacker

S. B.

(2000). Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: A proposal for reporting. JAMA, 283(15), 2008–2012.

49.

Tedeschi

R. G.

Calhoun

L. G.

(1996). The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(3), 455–471.

50.

Tedeschi

R. G.

Park

C. L.

Calhoun

L. G.

(1998). Posttraumatic growth: Positive changes in the aftermath of crisis. Routledge.

51.

Tedeschi

R. G.

Shakespeare-Finch

Taku

Calhoun

L. G.

(2018). Posttraumatic growth: Theory, research, and applications. Routledge.

52.

Van Aalst

M. K.

(2006). The impacts of climate change on the risk of natural disasters. Disasters, 30(1), 5–18.

53.

Weiss

Berger

(2006). Reliability and validity of a Spanish version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Research on Social Work Practice, 16(2), 191–199.

54.

Weiss

Berger

(2010). Posttraumatic growth and culturally competent practice: Lessons learned from around the globe. John Wiley & Sons.

55.

Wells

G. A.

Shea

O’Connell

D. a.

Peterson

Welch

Losos

Tugwell

(2000). The Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses. http://www.evidencebasedpublichealth.de/download/Newcastle_Ottowa_Scale_Pope_Bruce.pdf

56.

Zhou

(2015). The role of rumination in posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic growth among adolescents after the Wenchuan earthquake. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1335–1335. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01335

57.

Liao

(2011). Prevalence and predictors of posttraumatic growth among adult survivors one year following 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Journal of Affective Disorders, 133(1–2), 274–280. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.03.034

58.

(2014). Work satisfaction and posttraumatic growth 1 year after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake: The perceived stress as a moderating factor. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 28(3), 206–211. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2013.12.006

59.

Yoshida

Kobayashi

Honda

Matsuoka

Yamaguchi

Homma

Tomita

(2016). Post-traumatic growth of children affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and their attitudes to memorial services and media coverage. Psychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, 70(5), 193–201.

60.

Zatzick

D. F.

Kang

S.-M.

Müller

H.-G.

Russo

J. E.

Rivara

F. P.

Katon

Jurkovich

G. J.

Roy-Byrne

(2002). Predicting posttraumatic distress in hospitalized trauma survivors with acute injuries. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(6), 941–946.

61.

Zhou

(2016). The relationship between rumination, posttraumatic stress disorder, and posttraumatic growth among Chinese adolescents after earthquake: A longitudinal study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 193, 242–248. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.12.076

62.

Zorn

(2018). Natural disasters and less developed countries. In Pelc

Koderman

(Eds.), Nature, tourism and ethnicity as drivers of (de) marginalization (pp. 59–78). Springer.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.14 MB