Posttraumatic Growth Among College Students at a Large Urban University: The Role of Social Support and Unsupportive Social Interactions

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between both social support and unsupportive interactions and psychological outcomes, in a sample of college students who recently had experienced a stressful event. The research design was cross-sectional, and data were collected from 142 college students. As hypothesized, a significant positive association was found between unsupportive interactions received by participants and depressive symptoms. Contrary to hypotheses, no significant associations were found between unsupportive interactions and positive emotion or posttraumatic growth. Additionally, no significant relationship was evident between received emotional support and the outcome variables. Exploratory analysis revealed that positive reappraisal mediated the relationship between total received support and posttraumatic growth. A major contribution of the present study is evidence for unsupportive interactions significantly predicting depressive symptoms in a college-aged sample. Additionally, the current study adds to the literature concerning the correlates of posttraumatic growth