Exploring Post-Traumatic Growth Among Young Adults Coping With Parental Loss: The Role of Resilience and of Willingness to Seek Psychological Help

Abstract

This study examined the roles of resilience and willingness to seek psychological help in influencing Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) among 173 emerging adults who experienced parental loss during their school years. A positive relationship was found between resilience, the willingness to seek psychological help, and PTG. Participants who endured loss over five years prior manifested increased PTG (New-Possibilities, Spiritual Change, and Appreciation of Life sub-scales) relative to those with more recent losses. The multiple regression model was notable, accounting for 33% of the variance in PTG. Both resilience and the willingness to seek psychological help assistance significantly predicted PTG, surpassing other predictors in the model. It is worth noting that the type of loss, whether sudden or anticipated, did not alter PTG levels. In essence, this study underscores the enduring positive psychological impact of parental loss on emerging adults, highlighting the critical need for comprehensive psychological resources and support for such individuals.

Keywords

parental loss grief bereavement post-traumatic growth resilience willingness to seek psychological help

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ali

Fassnacht

D. B.

Farrer

Rieger

Feldhege

Moessner

Griffiths

K. M.

Bauer

(2020). What prevents young adults from seeking help? Barriers toward help‐seeking for eating disorder symptomatology. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(6), 894–906. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23266

Andriessen

Lobb

Mowll

Dudley

Draper

Mitchell

P. B.

(2019). Help-seeking experiences of bereaved adolescents: A qualitative study. Death Studies, 43(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2018.1426657

Arnett

J. J.

(2004). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. Oxford U. Press.

Arnett

J. J.

(2019). Conceptual foundations of emerging adulthood. In Murry

J. L.

Arnett

J. J.

(Eds.), Emerging adulthood and higher education: A new student development paradigm (pp. 11–24). Routledge.

Asgari

Naghavi

(2020). The experience of adolescents’ post-traumatic growth after sudden loss of father. Journal of Loss & Trauma, 25(2), 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2019.1664723

Bensimon

(2012). Elaboration on the association between trauma, PTSD and posttraumatic growth: The role of trait resilience. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(7), 782–787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.01.011

Bonanno

G. A.

(2012). Uses and abuses of the resilience construct: Loss, trauma, and health-related adversities. Social science & medicine (1982), 74(5), 753–756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.11.022

Brewer

Sparkes

A. C.

(2011). Parentally bereaved children and posttraumatic growth: Insights from an ethnographic study of a UK childhood bereavement service. Mortality, 16(3), 204–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2011.586164

Cerniglia

Cimino

Ballarotto

Monniello

(2014). Parental loss during childhood and outcomes on adolescents’ psychological profiles: A longitudinal study. Current Psychology, 33(4), 545–556. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9228-3

10.

Chmitorz

Kunzler

Helmreich

Tüscher

Kalisch

Kubiak

Wessa

Lieb

(2018). Intervention studies to foster resilience–A systematic review and proposal for a resilience framework in future intervention studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 59, 78–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.11.002

11.

Cormio

Romito

Giotta

Mattioli

(2015). Post‐traumatic growth in the Italian experience of long‐term disease‐free cancer survivors. Stress and Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 31(3), 189–196. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2545

12.

Corr

C. A.

Balk

D. E.

(2010). Children’s encounters with death, bereavement, and coping. Springer Publishing Company.

13.

Crowe

Averett

Glass

J. S.

(2016). Mental illness stigma, psychological resilience, and help seeking: What are the relationships? Mental Health & Prevention, 4(2), 63–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhp.2015.12.001

14.

Cupit

I. N.

Wilson-Doenges

Barnaby

Kowalski

D. Z.

(2021). When college students grieve: New insights into the effects of loss during emerging adulthood. Death Studies, 46(9), 2123–2133. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2021.1894510

15.

Divin

Harper

Curran

Corry

Leavey

(2018). Help-seeking measures and their use in adolescents: A systematic review. Adolescent Research Review, 3(1), 113–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-017-0078-8

16.

Feigelman

Rosen

Joiner

Silva

Mueller

A. S.

(2017). Examining longer-term effects of parental death in adolescents and young adults: Evidence from the national longitudinal survey of adolescent to adult health. Death Studies, 41(3), 133–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2016.1226990

17.

Gómez Molinero

Zayas

Ruiz González

Guil

(2018). Optimism and resilience among university students. International Journal of Developmental and Educational Psychology. Revista INFAD de Psicología, 1(1), 147–154. https://doi.org/10.17060/ijodaep.2018.n1.v1.1179

18.

Goodwin

Behan

Kelly

McCarthy

Horgan

(2016). Help-seeking behaviors and mental well-being of first year undergraduate university students. Psychiatry Research, 246, 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.09.015

19.

Greene

McGovern

(2017). Gratitude, psychological well-being, and perceptions of posttraumatic growth in adults who lost a parent in childhood. Death Studies, 41(7), 436–446. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2017.1296505

20.

Haavik

Joa

Hatloy

Stain

H. J.

Langeveld

(2017). Help seeking for mental health problems in an adolescent population: The effect of gender. Journal of Mental Health, 28(5), 467–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1340630

21.

Hagan

M. J.

Roubinov

D. S.

Gress-Smith

Luecken

L. J.

Sandler

I. N.

Wolchik

(2011). Positive parenting during childhood moderates the impact of recent negative events on cortisol activity in parentally bereaved youth. Psychopharmacology, 214(1), 231–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-010-1889-5

22.

Høeg

B. L.

Johansen

Christensen

Frederiksen

Dalton

S. O.

Bøge

Dencker

Dyregrov

Bidstrup

P. E.

(2019). Does losing a parent early influence the education you obtain? A nationwide cohort study in Denmark. Journal of Public Health, 41(2), 296–304. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdy070

23.

Jayawickreme

Blackie

L. E.

(2014). Post–traumatic growth as positive personality change: Evidence, controversies and future directions. European Journal of Personality, 28(4), 312–331. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1963

24.

Kaim

Romi

(2015). Adolescents at risk and their willingness to seek help from youth care workers. Children and Youth Services Review, 53, 17–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.03.002

25.

Keith-Lucas

(1972). Giving and taking help. University of North Carolina press.

26.

Lelorain

Bonnaud-Antignac

Florin

(2010). Long term posttraumatic growth after breast cancer: Prevalence, predictors and relationships with psychological health. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 17(1), 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-009-9183-6

27.

Levkovich

Duvshan

(2021). “I keep it together at work but fall apart at home”: The experience of Israeli homeroom teachers coping with the death of a student in their class. Omega, 84(2), 474–490. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222819899501

28.

Levkovich

Elyoseph

(2021). “I don’t know what to say”: Teachers’ perspectives on supporting bereaved students after the death of a parent. Omega, 86(3), 945–965. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222821993624

29.

Luthar

S. S.

(2015). Resilience in development: A synthesis of research across five decades. In Developmental psychopathology: Volume three: Risk, disorder, and adaptation (pp. 739–795). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470939406.ch20

30.

Matsui

Taku

(2023). Relationship between posttraumatic growth and help-seeking behavior in use of psychosocial support services among patients with cancer. Journal of cancer survivorship: Research and Practice, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01418-w

31.

Murrell

A. R.

Jackson

Lester

E. G.

Hulsey

(2018). Psychological flexibility and resilience in parentally bereaved college students. Omega, 76(3), 207–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222817693154

32.

Pan

Liu

L. W.

Kwok

(2016). Posttraumatic growth in aging individuals who have lost their only child in China. Death Studies, 40(7), 395–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2016.1169234

33.

Porter

Claridge

A. M.

(2019). Unique grief experiences: The needs of emerging adults facing the death of a parent. Death Studies, 45(3), 191–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2019.1626939

34.

Rubin

S. S.

Malkinson

Witztum

(2016). Working with the bereaved: Multiple lenses on loss and mourning. Routledge.

35.

Scali

Gandubert

Ritchie

Soulier

Ancelin

M. L.

Chaudieu

(2012). Measuring resilience in adult women using the 10-items Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Role of trauma exposure and anxiety disorders. PLoS One, 7(6), e39879. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039879

36.

Shakespeare‐Finch

Barrington

A. J.

(2012). Behavioural changes add validity to the construct of posttraumatic growth. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 25(4), 433–439. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.21730

37.

Shalev

Zamir

Barak

(2022). Disenfranchised grief: The death of a student with special needs and the coping of the school staff – a qualitative study. Omega, 302228221097297. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228221097297

38.

Şimşek Arslan

Özer

Buldukoğlu

(2022). Posttraumatic growth in parentally bereaved children and adolescents: A systematic review. Death Studies, 46(1), 111–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1716886

39.

Tan

Andriessen

(2021). The experiences of grief and personal growth in university students: A qualitative study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4), 1899. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041899

40.

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. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02103658

41.

Tedeschi

R. G.

Calhoun

L. G.

(2004). Target article: Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1501_01

42.

Tedeschi

R. G.

Calhoun

L. G.

(2007). Beyond the concept of recovery: Growth and the experience of loss. Death Studies, 32(1), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481180701741251

43.

Tedeschi

R. G.

Shakespeare-Finch

Taku

Calhoun

L. G.

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

44.

Vaquera

Aranda

Sousa-Rodriguez

(2017). Emotional challenges of undocumented young adults: Ontological security, emotional capital, and well-being. Social Problems, 64(2), 298–314. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spx010