Does event centrality mediate the effect of peritraumatic reactions on post-traumatic growth in survivors of a terrorist attack?

摘要

Background: While self-reported post-traumatic growth (PTG) has been documented aftera wide variety of potentially traumatic experiences, we need more knowledge on themechanisms behind PTG to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon.Objective: We aimed to investigate the hypothesized mechanism of perceived eventcentrality as a mediator on the pathway between peritraumatic reactions and later PTG.Method: In total, 204 survivors of the 2011 massacre on Ut?ya island, participated4–5 months (T1), 14–15 months (T2), and 30–32 months (T3) post-terror. We appliedcounterfactually based causal mediation analysis to explore the potential mediating roleof survivors’ perceived centrality (T2) in linking their peritraumatic reactions (T1) and self-reported PTG (T3).Results: The vast majority of the survivors reported experiencing some positive changespost-terror, and we found a positive, significant association between survivor’s peritraumaticreactions, perceived event centrality and self-reported growth. However, we did not findthat centrality significantly mediated the longitudinal association between peritraumaticreactions and later PTG.Conclusion: Reports of PTG are common post-terror, and peritraumatic reactions andperceptions of centrality may help explain individual differences in trauma survivors’ levelof PTG. Perceived event centrality about one year post-trauma does not appear to explainthe relationship between initial reactions to trauma and subsequent PTG.