Social support, religiousness, and posttraumatic growth in young adults following parental divorce

Abstract

Children can be harshly affected by parental divorce (Harvey & Fine, 2010) but also have the potential to heal and even become stronger in a phenomena referred to as posttraumatic growth (PTG). The present study hypothesized that social support, religiousness, and time since parental divorce would be positively related to PTG in young adults who experienced parental divorce and that gender would partially moderate the relationships between both religious coping and PTG and social support coping and PTG, such that women would experience more PTG than men. Participants were 232 young adults recruited at a Mid-Atlantic university and through snowball sampling. Social support and religious coping were found to be significantly related to PTG. No gender differences were found in the reporting of PTG, nor did the amount of time since parental divorce play a significant role. Implications to aide children in the promotion of positive growth and healing after parental divorce are discussed.