Reports of Post-Traumatic Growth and Well-Being: Moderating Effect of Defense Style

Research on the association between self-reports of post-traumatic growth and well-being show mixed findings. To resolve discrepancies, we suggest that self-reports of post-traumatic growth should not be taken at face value as indicating actual growth as in some cases such reports may be indicative of an illusory self-protective mechanism. As such we hypothesised that reports of post-traumatic growth are associated with defense styles. We also tested whether the association between self-reports of post-traumatic growth and well-being would be moderated by defensive styles. In a sample of 153 college students who had experienced some degree of trauma it was found that self-reports of post-traumatic growth were associated with a neurotic and an immature defense style. The association between self-reports of post-traumatic growth and positive as well as negative affect was moderated significantly by a mature defense style, such that for those with high mature defenses, higher scores of self-reports of post-traumatic growth were associated with lower increases in positive, and higher increases in negative, affect. The results suggest that self-reports of post-traumatic growth may sometimes reflect defensive processes rather than actual change.