Stories of life transition: Subjective well-being and ego development in parents of children with Down syndrome

wrote narratives about finding out that their child had DS and completed question-naire measures of subjective well-being (SWB) and stress-related growth and com-pleted the Sentence Completion Test as a measure of ego development. Forty-two of these individuals participated in a follow-up 2 years later. Foreshadowing and happy endings in the stories were related to heightened SWB at both time periods. Evidence of accommodative change—actively experiencing a paradigmatic shift— was related to stress-related growth and ego development at both time periods. A high sense of closure and accommodation in the stories was associated with the highest levels of stress-related growth. Implications for research on well-being and personal growth are discussed. ª 2000 Academic Press The first 24 hours we were led to believe that our daughter was so bad off that we actually prayed to God to take her from us now versus later. A wave of feelings passed through me—shock, fear and tremendous sad-ness and protectiveness toward my son. I remember feeling a little jealous of the mother in the bed next to me— nursing her new ‘‘whole’ ’ child. I remember feeling as if I was being punished. Major life changes, by definition, require individuals to come to terms with a new set of life circumstances. Some life changes, such as the ones We thank Greg Ligon for his assistance in participant recruitment and data collection. W