Sense of coherence, social support and coping as predictors of posttraumatic growth in orphan children

Pages:412-417
Naved Iqbal, Aafreen Sarfaraz, Sheema Aleem and Samina Bano (Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi)

Traditionally psychologists have focused on negative effect of stressful life events, but now there is growing realization that in some people it can bring positive change or posttraumatic growth. Most of the studies of posttraumatic growth were conducted on adults, there is some debate whether this topic is appropriate to study in children or not. In view of this present study was planned to study “sense of coherence, social support and coping as predictors of posttraumatic growth in orphan children.” Sample of the present study comprised 50 subjects (age 10-12). Sample was collected from different orphanages in Delhi. Sense of coherence was measured by the Sense of Coherence Scale developed by Antonovsky (1987). Social support was measured by Social Support Questionnaire for children (SSQC) developed by Gordon, Thompson, Kelley, Schexnaildre, and Burns (2010). Coping was measured by Youth Coping Responses Inventory (YCRI) developed by Hernandez, Vigna, and Kelley (2010). Posttraumatic growth was measured by Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C) developed by Cryder, Kilmer, Tedeschi, and Calhoun, (2006). The effect of these three predictor variables (sense of coherence, social support and coping) were assessed on the five dimensions of posttraumatic growth (i.e. relating to others, new possibilities, personal strength, spiritual change and appreciation of life). Obtained data were analyzed with the help of simultaneous multiple regressions. Results showed that total sense of coherence was not found as a significant predictor but when dimensions of sense of coherence were studied as predictors of different dimensions of posttraumatic growth, manageability dimension of sense of coherence was found to be significant predictor of all but one dimension of posttraumatic growth, i.e., spiritual change. Total social support was a significant predictor as well as its two types, i.e., peer and adult of most of the dimensions of posttraumatic growth. Total coping was found to be a significant predictor of spiritual change dimension of posttraumatic growth. When different coping were studied as predictors, diversion coping was found to be significant predictor for relating to others, new possibilities and spiritual change and ameliorative coping was found to be significant predictor of relating to others, personal strength, and appreciation dimensions of posttraumatic growth. Total sense of coherence, social support and coping yielded large effect size for all the dimensions of posttraumatic growth.