An investigation of Lebanese students' reactions, cognitive processing, coping strategies, and potential posttraumatic growth following the 2006 war in Lebanon

This thesis investigated potential positive and negative outcomes occurring in a sample of Lebanese students, following the 2006 war and the 2007 post-war events in Lebanon. It involved two independent but related studies. Study 1 sought to investigate: (a) the role of distress and posttraumatic growth as co-existing mechanisms; (b) the interplay of key variables and most importantly the role of rumination, in the model of posttraumatic growth and cognitive processing suggested by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1995; 2004) and Janoff-Bulman (1989; 2004); and (c) the validity of posttraumatic growth reports and their potentially illusory nature. Lebanese students (N = 295) from four universities in Lebanon completed self-report measures of positive and negative outcomes including posttraumatic growth, changes in outlook, and distress; cognitive processing measures; and measures of mood and social desirability. Overall, findings supported the predictions made. In relation to the first aim, findings supported the co-existence of growth and distress and suggested a catalytic role of distress in initiating growth. A refinement of the construct of rumination as set in the second aim was put forward through factor analyses and the role of intentional rumination as a mediating variable was established as a determining factor in the relationship between growth and trauma exposure. These findings were consistent with the models by Tedeschi and Calhoun and Janoff-Bulman and supported the key role played by cognitive processing in finding growth following trauma. Additional findings contributed to data on the validity of growth as set in the third aim and showed mixed findings pointing to potentially illusory and veridical accounts of growth. The general purpose of Study 2 was to account for the impact of the 2006 war and subsequent post-war events in a different but related student sample one year following data collection for Study 1. Study 2 sought to: (a) investigate the relationship between growth and coping strategies as an additional way of examining the validity of growth reports; and (b) to account for coping strategies that may be unique to the Lebanese war context. The sample (N = 152) came from the low socio-economic-statusuniversity included in Study 1 given that it had shown the highest levels of growth and the highest levels of trauma exposure amongst the four universities. The same measures of positive and negative outcomes from Study 1 were included. Ina addition, a Western-based coping measure was included as well as an exploratory Lebanese coping measure. Findings suggested a veridical account of growth as shown by its significant relationship with active coping strategies and exploratory factor analysis of the Lebanese coping items suggested clearly delineated factors. Overall, results suggest that while distress may still remain, active cognitive and coping attempts to grapple with the meaning of traumatic events may lead to posttraumatic growth.