Relating dispositional mindfulness, contemplative practice, and positive reappraisal with posttraumatic cognitive coping, stress, and growth.
Adam W. Hanley, Eric L Garland, Richard G Tedeschi
Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy September 1, 2017 DOI: 10.1037/tra0000208 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractMindfulness and positive reappraisal, a cognitive coping strategy, are linked to better outcomes after trauma, including reduced posttraumatic stress and increased posttraumatic growth. In a sample of 505 college students, adding mindfulness and positive reappraisal to existing models of posttraumatic growth improved the models' ability to explain the data. Distinct cognitive pathways connected mindfulness and disrupted core beliefs to both posttraumatic stress and growth. Engaging in contemplative practices substantially changed the relationships among the core posttraumatic growth variables. The findings support a view of trauma as capable of producing both positive and negative outcomes and highlight the importance of cognitive coping strategies in fostering positive change.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 505 |
| Population | College students |
| Key finding | Including dispositional mindfulness and positive reappraisal into established models of posttraumatic growth increases the model's explanatory power, with distinct cognitive coping pathways connecting these factors to posttraumatic stress and growth. |
Abstract
A growing body of theoretical and empirical work suggests that mindfulness may support more positive posttraumatic outcomes by reducing posttraumatic stress (PTS) and encouraging posttraumatic growth (PTG). Positive reappraisal (PR), a cognitive coping correlate of dispositional mindfulness (DM) has also been linked with greater PTG. However, neither DM nor PR have been modeled in relation to core posttraumatic constructs such as core belief disruption, intrusive rumination, deliberate rumination, PTS and PTG. This study explored associations between these constructs in a sample of college students (N = 505), also investigating the impact of contemplative practice involvement on the relationships between the constructs. Results indicate that including DM and PR into established models of PTG increases the model's explanatory power, which distinct cognitive coping pathways connect DM and core belief disruption with PTS as well as PTG, and that contemplative practice involvement substantially alters relationships between the core PTG variables. The present study contributes to the growing reconceptualization of trauma as linked with both positive and pathogenic outcomes, emphasizing the need to better understand how posttraumatic cognitive coping strategies contribute to more positive outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record