A comparative examination of posttraumatic growth and related variables between LGBT+ and heterosexual individuals

Traumatic experiences are generally associated with distressing and negative feelings, thoughts or psychopathologies that may occur after trauma. Positive changes after trauma is an area that have been studied relatively limited. Although there are distressing experiences after the traumatic event, posttraumatic growth, which talks about the possibility of reaching a more advanced level in various life areas compared to the situation before the trauma, brings a different perspective to trauma in this respect. This study aims to examine the relationships between posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, psychological resilience, social connectedness, perceived available support and psychological inflexibility, which appear to be related to posttraumatic growth. This study also aims to examine whether or not these variables differ between LGBT+ and heterosexual individuals. In this study, the quantitative research method and the correlational survey model were used in line with the stated purposes. The sample of this study consisted of 113 (heterosexual= 73, LGBT+=40) individuals aged between 18 and 60, with a mean age of 26.88 (sd= 8,21). The individuals in the sample of this study were selected by snowball sampling method. In this study, we used; the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (PCL-5) to assess posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms symptoms, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory to assess posttraumatic growth, the Brief Resilience Scale to assess resilience, the Social Connectedness Scale to assess social connectedness, the Perceived Available Support Scale to assess perceived available support and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-2 to assess psychological inflexibility. The data was analyzed with Pearson correlation coefficient to examine the relationships between the variables stated above. Independent samples t-test was also used to compare the scores between LGBT+ and heterosexual individuals regarding all the variables. As a result of the analyzes carried out in the study, posttraumatic growth showed a significant relationship only with the perceived available support both for all participants as well as for LGBT+ and heterosexual groups separately. The results revealed that all of the variables but posttraumatic growth differed significantly between LGBT+ and heterosexual individuals. The scores on resilience, social connectedness, and perceived available support were significantly higher in heterosexual individuals than in LGBT+ individuals. However the scores on posttraumatic stress disorder sypmtoms and psychological inflexibility were significantly higher in LGBT+ individuals than in heterosexual individuals. Findings have been discussed based on the related literature. Keywords: posttraumatic growth, LGBT+, heterosexual, perceived available support