Posttraumatic Growth Experiences of Adolescents With Parental Loss: A Phenomenological Study

This study examines the post-traumatic growth of adolescents who have lost their parents about their experiences. Eight adolescents whose parents had died participated in the study conducted in the phenomenological design. The data were collected with three-step semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the phenomenological analysis technique performed in five stages. The findings were grouped into three main themes as “reactions to loss,” “readjustment,” and “post-traumatic growth,” and nine subthemes under each, and these sub-themes were categorized into forty-five codes.

Post-Traumatic Growth of Nurses Who Faced the COVID-19 Epidemic and Its Correlation With Professional Self-Identity and Social Support

Objective:To investigate post-traumatic growth (PTG) and analyze its correlation with professional self-identity and social support in Chinese nurses who faced the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic.Methods:A cross-sectional descriptive design was used in this study. An online questionnaire was completed by 266 nurses who faced the COVID-19 emergency in Hubei Province, China. The Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), Professional Self-identity Scale, and Perceived Social Support Scale were used to assess the level of PTG, professional self-identity, and social support. Descriptive, univariate analysis and multiple regression analyses were used in exploring related influencing factors.Results:Participants' mean scores were 96.26 (SD = 21.57) for PTG, 115.30 (SD = 20.82) for professional self-identification, and 66.27 (SD = 12.90) for social support. Multiple regression analysis showed that nurses from other provinces moving to support Hubei Province, professional self-identity, and social support were the main factors affecting nurse stress (p = 0.014, < 0.001, and 0.017, respectively). Professional self-identity and social support were positively correlated with PTG (r = 0.720 and 0.620, respectively).Conclusions:There was a phenomenon of PTG when the nurses faced COVID-19 in Hubei Province. Providing an active coping style helps to improve the level of PTG.

Kintsugi mind: clinicians can emerge from the pandemic whole

The Japanese practice an ancient art called Kintsugi. A craftsperson repairs broken pottery with gold or silver rendering it more beautiful than in its original state. Can clinicians engage in “Kintsugi Mind” and thereby emerge from this pandemic integrated and whole? Yuan et al. (2021) conducted a meta-analysis including 88 studies of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following earlier pandemics and COVID-19. Health care professionals had the highest prevalence (26.9%) compared to infected cases and the public. Another type of trauma is called secondary or vicarious; it occurs when a person bears witness to suffering and death but remains powerless to change it; countless clinicians have experienced this over the past year. It manifests as emotional depletion, anxiety, insomnia, and impaired interpersonal relationships. How can clinicians heal from their exposure to the pandemic? Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is defined as positive psychological changes following trauma. PTG manifests in five areas: appreciation of life, relating to others, personal strength, recognizing new possibilities, and spiritual change. A transformation in the person’s world view and their place in it ensues. For health care professionals who are experiencing emotional distress, insomnia, or manifest PTSD symptoms they may heal by engaging in the six “Rs.” These are: relating, resourcing, repatterning, reprocessing, reflecting, and rituals. Both PTG and these six practices may contribute to Kintsugi Mind. While this appears to place the onus on individuals, it is crucial that leaders in the health care system implement programs enabling HCPs to be restored, rather than broken by this crisis.

Dynamics of the Transmission of Trauma through three Generations of Slovene Families

In this paper, we will present a study into the dynamics of the transmission of emotional traumatic in three families of victims of World War II and post-war communist oppression. This study is taken from a broader research project in which we investigated the experiences of nonclinical families that managed to survive through three generation, and in which post-traumatic growth is present, i. e. the ability to integrate traumatic experiences and provide greater security for future generations. The main focus will be on how emotional content is transmitted and transformed through generations and how to recognise it in various forms of behaviour, thinking and emotions, that appear in each of the generations. As we follow the transformation of traumatic content, we will also follow the the signs that show how traumatic content has integrated and begun to bring new, deeper emotional and mental insights. The emotional depth of the traumatic experience is what burdens the victim the most and slows down the dynamics of trauma processing. It appears in the form of symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, insecurity and mistrust. This is found even in victims who have articulated the trauma sufficiently to rise above intimidation, managed to develop emotionally strong and connecting interpersonal relationships, maintain faith in the future, and form a coherent narrative of their traumatic past. The most interesting result of the research was that all three families, regardless of their diversity, are similar in term of processing the trauma. They were all able to speak openly about their traumatic experiences. In all three families there there was a great deal of discussion and searching for the social framework and personal truth of historical events, and the desire to present and describe the events that left such deep wounds in such a way that they would be clear, reworked and accessible to future generations as a document of the reality of some tragic and difficult times. Another source of trauma processing was religious faith, which allowed all the participants in this study to look at trauma and life more deeply, through relationships and connections between people and through a deeper understanding of human history embedded in a broader and deeper spiritual flow. Faith helped these families to find the courage to make decisions, to face life’s challenges, and to endure even the most severe of life's trials. A third source that facilitates the processing and integration of a traumatic experience is secure interpersonal relationships and compassionate parenting. Despite the fact that the whole question of parenting was demanding and full of challenges for our interviewees, the quality of parenting has been improved from generation to generation, and sincere affection for children and gratitude for children were present everywhere. The ability to follow the new generation and its initiatives while maintaining a connection to its roots is a dynamic that characterises all three families. There is also a lot of thinking and conscious effort in establishing and maintaining good marital relationships in these families. For the recovery from trauma this study shows the importance of talking about it and also talking about it in a safe relationship until it takes a form that is genuine and at the same time clear, coherent and thus suitable for the general public. That’s when the traumatic story ceases to be traumatizing and becomes a story of courage, perseverance, and truth.

Good is stronger than bad for eudaimonic well-being

Perceived changes in basic beliefs and growth related to life events were examined in three studies. A representative sample (N = 885), a sample of students and their families (N = 291) and a sample of students (N = 245) responded with a list of positive and negative life events, a scale of changes in basic beliefs and a post-traumatic growth scale. Positive events were strongly associated with changes in basic beliefs, while only weak associations were found for negative events. In addition, negative changes in basic beliefs were associated with growth only in negative life events and positive changes in basic beliefs were generally associated with growth.

COVID-19 Pandemic Driven Knowledge, Attitude, Clinical Practice, Distress Reactions, and Post-Traumatic Growth of Dental Care Providers in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: The present study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, clinical practices, distress reactions, and post-traumatic growth of dentists during the COVID-19 pandemic in Riyadh City. Methodology: An online questionnaire was developed to assess various dental professionals from both governmental and private sectors during the early COVID-19 outbreak in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was framed to assess the demographic variables, knowledge, attitude, and clinical practices towards handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the general anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7), worry questionnaire items, short form of post-traumatic growth inventory (PTGI-SF), and life satisfaction questionnaire items were developed to assess the anxiety, worries, post-traumatic growth, and life satisfaction of dental care providers following the traumatic events. Data were analysed using SPSS 22.0 and R environment ver.3.2.2. Continuous measurement results were presented as mean ± SD, and categorical measurements results were presented in number (%). Results: Our study's significant findings revealed that a majority of the dentists were in the age group of 21-30 and practiced general dentistry. The study participants in age groups 51–60 and 41–50 years old showed more liability in perceiving COVID-19 as an extremely dangerous disease than 31–40 and 21–30 age groups. The majority of respondents (63.4%) had an anxiety scale score of greater than 40, followed by 22.8% with scores 20-40 and 13.9% with scores less than 20, respectively. The mean scores for the GAD-7 and the worry items were 8.24 ± 3.21 and 13.92 ± 4.77, respectively. The data showed that most survey participants had adopted moderate post-traumatic changes during the pandemic, as evident by their mean score of 34.17 ± 3.40. The life satisfaction of the participants was neutral, as demonstrated by their mean score of 20.16 ± 4.03. Conclusion: This study’s findings delineated that the COVID-19 pandemic situation has influenced dentists' mental health, with a moderate level of anxiety, and worries among other psychological symptoms. Furthermore, there was adequate knowledge regarding the COVID-19 among dentists; however, the pandemic affected the financial conditions of the respondents. There was a moderate level of post-traumatic growth and neutral life satisfaction of the dental providers.