Posttraumatic Growth and Posttraumatic Mental Health Outcomes: A Call for Better Research

Posttraumatic growth is frequently considered a positive adaptation in the wake of trauma, but whether posttraumatic growth remediates posttraumatic mental health problems is inconclusive. The differential results may be due to the variety of ways posttraumatic growth is operationalized with various measures, comparisons to dissimilar trauma populations with vastly different reactions, and the majority of cross-sectional research, which does not give an adequate picture of causality or long-term effects. Further delineating adaptive from illusory posttraumatic growth may help in understanding this highly debated construct, which is difficult to do given the poor understanding of the research outcomes (Maercker & Zoellner). This paper examined the gaps in posttraumatic growth research to give a more conclusive picture of potential reasons for differential results in the relationship between posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic stress, identifying opportunities for future research directions. Understanding the relationship between posttraumatic growth and mental health sequelae after traumatic incident(s) necessitates studies that utilize effective measures, defining adaptive posttraumatic growth from illusory, expanding to standardized longitudinal studies comparing similar trauma populations.