Author(s)

Michael Galea

Mental Health Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Malta.

Background: Increasingly, research is indicating that individuals do report psychological growth after experiencing trauma, and not only its adverse effects. Method: In this cross-sectional correlational study among university students, we investigated their perceived stress, past traumas, subjective well-being, spirituality, positive and negative affect, and personality, together with demographic correlates. Results: Post-traumatic growth correlated with personality, spirituality, well-being and positive affect. Results from the hierarchical multiple regression analysis suggested a direct link between PTG and subjective well-being, positive affect, spirituality and personality, but no such link with negative affect. Conclusion: Personality featured prominently in predicting almost half of the variance of posttraumatic growth even after controlling for key variables. The psycho-social implications of these results were discussed.

Posttraumatic Growth, Past Trauma, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Wellbeing, Psycho-Spiritual Status, Perceived Stress

Galea, M. (2018) Predicting Post-Traumatic Growth among a Sample of Maltese Tertiary Students. Psychology, 9, 2561-2572. doi: 10.4236/psych.2018.911146.