The predictors of post-traumatic growth in individuals who have expreienced grief: Past experiences, locus of control and psychological symptoms

The first aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between past grief experiences, locus of control, psychological symptoms and post-traumatic growth in individuals who have experienced a loss in the last two years. Secondly, it is aimed to find the predictors of post-traumatic growth in the study. The sample consisted of 276 participants who lost a relative in the last 2 years. Participants were between the ages of 18-65 and 139 (50.4%) of the participants were women and 137 (49.6%) of them were men. Socio-demographic information form to collect demographic information of the participants; Past Grief Experiences Scale (PGES) to gain information about past grief experiences; Post-Traumatic Growth Scale (PTGS) to get information about whether they showed traumatic growth after trauma; Locus of Control Scale (LCS) was used to understand the type of references they made to situations, and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were applied by the participants to measure the severity of grief. The statistical analyses show that; there are significant relationships between the variables of the study which are locus of control, posttraumatic growth and psychological symptoms. It was found that there is a statistically insignificant relationship between the past grief experiences variable and the other variables of the study. Next, the predictors of post-traumatic growth were investigated. Analyses show that; external locus of control, psychological symptoms, time spent with the loss, gender and age of the participants are the predictors of post-traumatic growth. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature, and the importance of the research for the literature and clinical practice was emphasized. Finally, the limitations of the study were examined and suggestions were made for future research.