Abstract

This study investigated the mediating effect of deliberate rumination and meaning making on the relationship between intrusive rumination and post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth. Participants were 293 college students (109 males and 184 females) who completed a set of online self-report questionnaires that measured trauma experience, post-traumatic stress symptoms, post-traumatic growth, event-related rumination, and meaning making. The results of path analysis indicated that intrusive rumination positively predicted deliberate rumination, and deliberate rumination positively predicted both post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth. Moreover, intrusive rumination negatively predicted meaning making, and meaning making negatively predicted post-traumatic stress symptoms and positively predicted post-traumatic growth. Furthermore, there was a sequential mediating effect of deliberate rumination and meaning making on the relationship between intrusive rumination and post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth. In other words, the higher the intrusive rumination, the higher the deliberate rumination, which led to a higher level of meaning making, and meaning making was negatively associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms and positively associated with post-traumatic growth. Based on these results, implications and limitations of the study were discussed.