Post-Traumatic Growth
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
Positive psychological change experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances, including profound personal losses and major life transitions. In internationally mobile contexts, post-traumatic growth has been documented following the accumulation of transition-related losses, re-entry shock, and identity disruption, suggesting that significant adversity in globally mobile lives can, under the right conditions, produce meaningful personal development.
Comparable terms
Adversarial growth (research — equivalent; emphasizes that growth arises from adversity rather than despite it) · Benefit finding (clinical, positive psychology — related; identifying positive aspects of negative experiences) · Resilience (see separate entry — related but distinct; resilience describes maintained functioning, post-traumatic growth describes development beyond pre-crisis functioning) · Thriving (positive psychology — broader; includes growth without prior adversity)
Why this matters
Growth after hardship is not automatic and doesn’t erase pain, but it is possible. For global families, intense transitions and shocks can eventually deepen empathy, purpose, and faith in their own capacity. Recognizing this possibility offers hope without denial.
Cross-references
Resilience (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Cumulative Loss (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Meaning-Making (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Flourishing (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Sense of Agency (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Ambiguous Loss (Wellbeing & Mental Health). Meaning-making is the psychological process most directly associated with producing post-traumatic growth — it is through constructing coherent understanding of adversity that transformation becomes possible. Flourishing describes the wellbeing state toward which post-traumatic growth trajectories aim; sense of agency is both a product of and a contributor to post-traumatic growth — growth through adversity develops the conviction that one can act effectively even in difficult circumstances. Ambiguous loss is among the most common forms of adversity in internationally mobile populations through which post-traumatic growth can develop.
Sources
Post-traumatic growth is defined as positive psychological change resulting from the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances, and is conceptualized as distinct from resilience (which describes a return to prior functioning) in that growth involves movement to a higher level of functioning than existed before the crisis. Tedeschi, R.G. & Calhoun, L.G. (1996). The posttraumatic growth inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(3), 455–471.
The application of post-traumatic growth to internationally mobile populations specifically is emerging rather than established in the research literature. The most applicable broader context is: Masten, A.S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227–238.
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