Post-traumatic growth and value-directed living after acquired brain injury

ABSTRACT

Traumatic events can be associated with positive change, termed “post-traumatic growth.” Existing resesarch suggests some overlap between post-traumatic growth and value-directed living. This study sought to explore the relationship between post-traumatic growth and value-directed living after acquired brain injury. Self-report questionnaires including the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Valued Living Questionnaire, Engaged Living Scale, Valuing Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, World Health Organization Well-Being Index, Brief Resilience Scale, Trauma Screening Questionnaire and Glasgow Outcome Scale were posted to 317 individuals who had experienced a head injury, stroke or subarachnoid haemorrhage in the previous 3–13 years, with a hospital admission of minimum 7 days. Questionnaires were completed by 81 participants. Post-traumatic growth was significantly positively associated with two measures of value-directed living (VLQ, r = .269; VQ, r = .215). Higher levels of value-directed living were significantly associated with increased positive outcomes (wellbeing) and reduced negative outcomes (distress, post-traumatic stress symptoms). There was no significant association between post-traumatic growth and any of these outcomes. The association between post-traumatic growth and value-directed living indicates possible common underlying processes. Value-directed living appears to be a more useful concept, as it was associated with clinically relevant outcomes. It is recommended that value-directed living interventions are considered in brain injury rehabilitation.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-traumatic growth
• Value-directed living
• Acquired brain injury
• Valued living
• Brain injury rehabilitation

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to participants for their time and effort participating in this study and to the Brain Injury Grampian group for their feedback on pilot materials. Thank you to the NHS Grampian Neuropsychology department for supporting this project, and in particular Dr Fiona Summers and Dr Jackie Hamilton for their assistance with participant recruitment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted in part fulfilment of the degree of Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, funded by NHS Education for Scotland. Clinical supervision was provided by the Department of Neuropsychology, NHS Grampian.