About thirteen years ago, a big earthquake hit Wenchuan, resulting in over eighty-seven thousand people’s deaths or missing. Years later, with the experience of this adversity, the induced post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms could be transformed into post-traumatic growth (PTG) based on the time effect (Goenjian et al., 2000). PTG refers to the positive psychological changes of individuals after experiencing traumatic events (Jayawickreme & Blackie, 2014). The positive psychological changes mainly include improved self-awareness, life values, interpersonal experiences in addition to other positive outcomes (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Many protective factors have been found in promoting PTG, such as personality traits (e.g., optimism, Bozo, Gundogdu, & Buyukasik-Colak, 2009; Prati & Pietrantoni, 2009; Zoellner, Rabe, Karl, & Maercker, 2008), coping style (e.g., positive coping, Perez-San-Gregorio et al., 2017; Prati & Pietrantoni, 2009), and rumination (Chan, Ho, Tedeschi, & Leung, 2011; Zhou, Wu, An, & Chen, 2014). Among the antecedents, resilience and social support are two vital factors that have been often discussed. Plenty of evidence has implied that resilience and social support can promote PTG (Yu et al., 2014; Yuan, Xu, Liu, & An, 2018; Zhou, Wu, & Zhen, 2017). However, the specific function mechanism remains unclear.
Plenty of evidence revealed that resilience is positively associated with PTG (Coifman, Bonanno, & Rafaeli, 2007; Kilmer, 2006; Nishi, Matsuoka, & Kim, 2010). It is commonly acknowledged that resilience is an individual's capability to cope with and adapt to difficult situations. When an individual is dealing with pressure or depression, the recovery capability will be promoted (Pidgeon, Ford, & Klaassen, 2014). How does resilience promote PTG? Firstly, when the level of individual resilience is high, it is usually accompanied by optimism and positive countermeasures. These characteristics can help individuals to deal with negative life events in a successful way so as to maintain their good mental and physical health (Connor & Davidson, 2003). Secondly, resilience can help individuals identify the significance of the predicament with positive experience of the past to alleviate psychological pressure, encouraging individuals to positively construct their lives and ultimately achieve PTG (Prati & Pietrantoni, 2009). Finally, they are more optimistic in their expectations for the future, with employing a positive method to solve problems (Burton, Pakenham, & Brown, 2010). In conclusion, individuals with high resilience show more positive and optimistic attitudes towards past negative events and future affairs, thus contributing to PTG. Based on the evidence provided, resilience is hypothesized as a protective factor in promoting PTG.
In addition to resilience, a large number of studies have found that social support as an interpersonal factor can promote PTG (Jia, Ying, Zhou, Wu, & Lin, 2015; Mason, Holden, Adams, & Ed., 2015; Nenova, DuHamel, Zemon, Rini, & Redd, 2013; Ray, 2015; Senol-Durak & Belgin Ayvasik, 2010; Zhou et al., 2017). Perceived social support refers to the emotional experience and satisfaction of individuals in social relations, including being respected, supported and understood (Sarason, et al., 1991). Social support can improve interpersonal relationships and enhance intimacy with others, which also helps to increase the possibility of emotional sharing and cognitive reassessment and plays a key role in influencing the development of patients to actively respond to trauma (Nenova et al., 2013; Rime, 2009). Previous studies have shown that individuals obtained more social support to achieve more PTG (Jia et al., 2015; Zhou et al., 2017). Encountering adversity, individuals can get material and spiritual assistance from their families and peers and experience a sense of security and belonging (Greup et al., 2018). In this way, they gain positive psychological power, thus promoting the realization of PTG (Guay, Billette, & Marchand, 2006). Social support, therefore, is widely known as an interpersonal promoting factor for PTG.
It is easy to understand that resilience and social support could promote PTG. However, the real question is what the relationship between resilience and social support is. On the one hand, previous studies found that the higher the level of individual resilience is, the higher the degree of perceived social support will be (Swanson, Geller, DeMartini, Fernandez, & Fehon, 2018). Individuals with high resilience have a sense of tenacity and control in the face of difficulties. In addition, they tend to have more positive cognitive outlooks and experience more positive emotions, thus getting more social support (Connor & Davidson, 2003; Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008). Furthermore, social support could mediate the relationship between resilience and PTG (Yuan et al., 2018), as shown in Fig. 1A. In this effect pattern, resilience is an independent variable and social support is a mediating variable in the relationship between resilience and PTG.
On the other hand, social support can also better promote resilience. When encountering adversity, individuals could get assistance from their families, schoolmates, and friends. These social supports serve as social resources for developing resilience (Gilligan, 2000). Previous research proposed a dynamic perspective (Freitas & Downey, 1998) and developmental perspective (Aldwin & Sutton, 1998) for resilience trajectories, both of which emphasized social support’s function on resilience. Our previous study also verified the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between social support and PTG (Xin, Bai, Chen, Zhu, & Liu, 2019), as shown in Fig. 1B. In this effect pattern, social support is an independent variable and resilience is a mediating variable in the relationship between social support and PTG.
Given that both mediating models (Fig. 1A and Fig. 1B) have considerable evidence, the attention is drawn to whether the two mediating models are simultaneously tenable in the sampling population in Wenchuan earthquake-stricken areas, especially the adolescents. For adolescents who are in the critical period of physical and mental development, the plasticity of cognitive development is high, which provides a great opportunity to achieve PTG. When the earthquake happened, they were children about six or seven years old. After twelve years, they might have formed better resilience, got more social support, and achieved greater PTG. Thus, we attempt to test whether these two mediating models could simultaneously tenable in this population and this may provide a reference to psychological assistance intervention for people hit by adversity.