Posttraumatic stress on Chinese adolescents’ posttraumatic growth: The role of trauma centrality and emotion regulation

The current 6-month follow-up study investigated 1) the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at baseline (T1), trauma centrality and two types of cognitive emotion regulation (CER) at 3-month follow-up (T2), and psychiatric co-morbidity and posttraumatic growth (PTG) at 6-month follow-up (T3), 2) whether trauma centrality at T2 would mediate the impact of initial PTSD on psychiatric co-morbidity and PTG at T3, and 3) whether the two types of CER at T2 (i.e., adaptive CER and maladaptive CER) would respectively mediate the effect of initial PTSD on psychiatric co-morbidity and PTG at T3. Seven hundred and fifty-seven traumatized Chinese adolescents (Male = 400, Female = 357) from two secondary schools participated in the study and completed a demographic page, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5, the Centrality of Events Scale, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire-28, the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents. After controlling for demographic variables and academic stress, PTSD at baseline was positively associated with trauma centrality at T2, two types of CER at T2, and PTG at T3, but negatively related to psychiatric co-morbidity at T3. Trauma centrality at T2 did not mediate the impact of initial PTSD on psychiatric co-morbidity and PTG at T3. Both types of cognitive emotion regulation at T2 (i.e., adaptive CER and maladaptive CER) respectively mediated the effect of initial PTSD on PTG at T3 and but not that on psychiatric co-morbidity at T3. Following past trauma, Chinese adolescents might experience psychological distress as well as positive changes over time. These traumatic outcomes could be affected by adolescents’ thinking patterns about trauma, as opposed to by their concept of self. Adaptive thinking patterns promoted the positive effect of trauma onto personal growth, whereas the maladaptive patterns impaired the development of growth