Assessment and prediction of stress-related growth

• Published in: Journal of personality Vol. 64; no. 1; p. 71
• Main Authors: Park, C L, Cohen, L H, Murch, R L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-03-1996
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Female; Gender Identity; Humans; Life Change Events; Male; Personality Assessment - statistics & numerical data; Personality Development; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Social Support; Students - psychology
• ISSN: 0022-3506
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1996.tb00815.x

This article reports the development of the Stress-Related Growth Scale (SRGS) and its use in a study examining determinants of stress-related positive outcomes for college students. Study 1 analyses showed that the SRGS has acceptable internal and test-retest reliability and that scores are not influenced by social desirability. Study 2 analyses showed that college students' SRGS responses were significantly related to those provided by friends and relatives on their behalf. Study 3 analyses tested the determinants of stress-related growth longitudinally. Significant predictors of the SRGS were (a) intrinsic religiousness; (b) social support satisfaction; (c) stressfulness of the negative event; (d) positive reinterpretation and acceptance coping; and (e) number of recent positive life events. The SRGS was also positively related to residual change in optimism, positive affectivity, number of socially supportive others, and social support satisfaction, lending further support to the validity of this new scale. Results have implications for current theory on stress-related positive outcomes.