Assessment and prediction of stress-related growth

ABSTRACT This article reports the development of the Stress-Related Growth Scale (SRGS) atid its use in a study examining determinants of stress-related positive outcomes for college students. Study 1 analyses showed that the SRGS has acceptable internal and test-retest reliability and that scores are not influenced by social desirability. Study 2 analyses showed that college stu-dents ' SRGS responses were significantly related to those provided by friends and relatives on their behalf. Study 3 analyses tested tbe determinants of stress-related growth longitudinally. Significant predictors of the SRGS were (a) intrinsic religiousness; {b) social support satisfaction; (c) stressfulness of tbe negative event; {d) positive reinterpretation and acceptance coping; and (e) number of recent positive life events. Tbe SRGS was also positively related to residual cbange in optimism, positive affectivity, number of socially supportive otbers, and social support satisfaction, lending furtber support to tbe validity of tbis new scale. Results bave implications for current tbeory on stress-related positive outcomes. The major focus of stress and coping research has been on negative outcomes and adjustment and on identifying variables that mitigate the stress-distress relationship (Cohen, 1988). Although the reasoning be-We thank Susan Folkman and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. Requests for reprints and a copy of the Stress-Relate