青少年核心信念挑战对创伤后成长的影响：反刍与社会支持的作用

采用核心信念问卷、反刍问卷、社会支持问卷和创伤后成长问卷, 以汶川地震4年半后的354名中学生为被试, 考察其核心信念挑战、侵入性反刍、主动反刍、社会支持与创伤后成长之间的关系。结果发现, 地震4年半后青少年创伤后成长的整体水平较高, 其中女生高于男生, 初二学生相对低于高年级学生。结构方程模型的结果显示, 侵入性反刍和主动反刍在核心信念挑战与创伤后成长之间起部分中介作用, 核心信念挑战可以直接正向预测创伤后成长, 也可以通过侵入性反刍对创伤后成长起负向预测作用、通过主动反刍对创伤后成长起正向预测作用、通过侵入性反刍经主动反刍正向预测创伤后成长; 社会支持在侵入性反刍影响创伤后成长的直接路径上不起调节作用, 但在侵入性反刍经主动反刍对创伤后成长的间接路径上起调节作用, 具体表现为侵入性反刍对主动反刍的正向预测作用随着社会支持的增加而降低。

The Roles of Rumination and Social Support in the Associations between Core Belief Challenge and Post-traumatic Growth among Adolescent Survivors after the Wenchuan Earthquake

The aftermath of traumatic events differs from person to person. Although some people show negative results, many people report positive results such as Post-traumatic Growth (PTG). PTG refers to positive psychological changes resulted from individuals’ struggle against their main threatening life adversity, and it contains changed perception of self, changed sense of interpersonal relationship, and changed philosophy of life. Recently, the overwhelming majority of research has put their emphasis on the influencing factors of PTG, particularly the exploration of the developmental mechanism of PTG. According to Calhoun and Tedeschi’s model of PTG, traumatic event is assumed to challenge the important components of individuals’ assumptive world or core beliefs. When a trauma event happens, individuals are led to reexamine their core beliefs, and what makes it possible for individuals to recognize the positive changes and experience PTG. Therefore, the challenge to individuals’ assumptive world or core beliefs is an important element for understanding the developmental process of PTG. Although many theoretical and empirical studies agreed that core belief challenge had effects on PTG, the roles of other relevant factors in the relationship of core belief challenge to PTG have been ignored. Relevant theories indicate that rumination may play an important role in the process which core belief challenge affects PTG, and social support may moderate the path which rumination impacts on PTG. For this reason, rumination and social support were incorporated into the exploration of relationship between core beliefs and PTG in our study, and the internal mechanism how core belief challenge affects PTG was also taken into much account. In the current study, 354 adolescents (165 males, 189 females) from grade 8, 9 in junior schools and grade 11, 12 in senior high schools of the Wenchuan county were investigated by means of questionnaires four and a half years after the Wenchuan earthquake. The main results were as follows: (1) The overall level of PTG among adolescents was high, while the level of female students was higher than that of male students, and the grade 8 students’ PTG level was lower than that of students from any other grades. (2) Both intrusive rumination and deliberate rumination mediated partly the relationship between core belief challenge and PTG. On the one hand, core belief challenge could affect the PTG directly. On the other hand, core belief challenge could affect PTG negatively through intrusive rumination while had a positive effect on PTG through deliberate rumination. In addition, core belief challenge could affect PTG positively via the indirect way which intrusive rumination influenced deliberate rumination. (3) Neither the relationship of intrusive rumination to nor deliberate rumination to PTG, the path which social support moderated was the relationship of intrusive rumination to deliberate rumination. To be specific, the effect of intrusive rumination on deliberate rumination decreased with the increase of social support. That is, social support moderated the indirect path from intrusive rumination to PTG via deliberate rumination. The results have indicated that school psychologists should take notice of the changes in adolescents’ core beliefs before and after the disaster, and guide them to think the significance of life positively. Moreover, the encouragement of positive cognition should also be given while social support for students be provided.