Het vermogen om terug te veren : over de samenhang van veerkracht en posttraumatische groei met psychisch welbevinden bij het omgaan met ingrijpende levensgebeurtenissen

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between resilience, posttraumatic growth and psychological well-being when dealing with major life events. 78 people completed questionnaires measuring these concepts. For resilience and wellbeing were both used two questionnaires. For well-being, the MHC-SF and the WEMWBS displayed good criterion validity. The scales used to measure resilience, the RS-NL and the BR-S, displayed a slightly lower, but good enough, criterion validity. The research findings indicate that there is no correlation between major life events, resilience, posttraumatic growth and well-being. However, a higher degree of resilience is related to a higher degree of well-being. It appears that the relation between resilience and well-being is stronger when people experience relatively little adverse events. When people experience relatively many major life events, there is a negative relationship between posttraumatic growth and resilience. This leads to the conclusion that resilience only helps people cope when they experience a small amount of adverse life events. In further research, the relation of resilience with well-being and the presence of psychopathology needs to be examined. This can give more insight on the possible differences in relationships of resilience with these dimensions.