International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Abstract

There is some conceptual ambiguity between Resilience and Posttraumatic growth (PTG) in the professional literature, with some suggesting that PTG is a form of Resilience and others that PTG is a superior construct. This study aimed to provide further clarity by examining the relationship between Resilience and PTG in a group of New Orleans Mental Health Responders (N=219) personally and professionally exposed to Hurricane Katrina. Findings indicate that the correlation between Resilience and PTG is, as expected, positive and statistically significant albeit modest (r=.15, p=.024). When controlling for variables associated with Resilience and PTG respectively, Compassion Satisfaction has the greatest overlap. Primary/Secondary Shared Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress, and Compassion Fatigue exhibit moderately strong relationships to Resilience but rather weak relationships to PTG. Conversely, the two remaining control variables, Life Events and Shared Trauma/Professional Posttraumatic Growth, exhibit stronger relationships to PTG than to Resilience. These findings support the interrelationship of resilience and posttraumatic growth, but suggest that each have specific variables more associated with one than the other.

Biography