New Groups and Post-Traumatic Growth: Experimental Evidence That Gaining Group Memberships Supports Recovery From Natural Disaster

This paper provides the first experimental test of whether two social identity model of traumatic identity change processes—(i) group membership gain, and (ii) group membership continuity—predict post-traumatic growth (PTG) and post-traumatic stress (PTS) via social identity revitalization. Particip...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environment and behavior 2024-11, Vol.56 (5-6), p.383-407
Main Authors: Craig, Natalie, Haslam, Catherine, Cruwys, Tegan, Jetten, Jolanda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Disaster management
Disaster recovery
Disasters
Group identity
Membership
Natural disasters
Post traumatic stress disorder
Psychological stress
Recovery
Regeneration
Social identity
Social interactions
Trauma
Weather
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper provides the first experimental test of whether two social identity model of traumatic identity change processes—(i) group membership gain, and (ii) group membership continuity—predict post-traumatic growth (PTG) and post-traumatic stress (PTS) via social identity revitalization. Participants (N = 210, Mage = 49.59 years) were adult flood survivors who were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: group membership gain, group membership continuity, or a weather control. Participants then completed measures of PTG, PTS, and social identity revitalization. Participants in the group membership gain condition reported greater social identity revitalization, compared to the group membership continuity and control conditions. Social identity revitalization, in turn, predicted PTG, and the indirect effect of group membership gain on PTG was significant. We concluded that gaining new group memberships play a role in supporting natural disaster recovery by fostering positive reappraisals of the disaster via social identity revitalization.
ISSN:0013-9165
1552-390X
DOI:10.1177/00139165241286840