In this discussion, we will address the possibilities of posttraumatic growth. As you know, most of the attention of researchers, health care providers, and parents is focused on the long term negative impacts of trauma and how to help the child resolve them. However, there is growing research interest in the long term growth that can derive from trauma – often alongside the negative impacts.
Child trauma researcher, Eva Alisic and her team have asked those of us in the trauma field to “look beyond posttraumatic stress disorder” in children, to consider also the posttraumatic growth (PTG) and the child’s quality of life after trauma (Alisic, van der Schoot, van Ginkel,