Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 7:13:996041.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.996041. eCollection 2022.

Growth and Hope after loss: How TAPS facilitates posttraumatic growth in those grieving military deaths

Melinda Moore  1 , Jerry K Palmer  1 , Julie Cerel  2 , Kim Ruocco  3
Affiliations

Growth and Hope after loss: How TAPS facilitates posttraumatic growth in those grieving military deaths

Melinda Moore et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

We examined posttraumatic growth for 691 participants of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). Peer mentors of bereaved individuals experienced greater posttraumatic growth (PTG) and reported higher psychological health than those who were non-peer mentors. Active involvement in TAPS and resilience consistently and positively predicted all types of PTG. These prediction models were far stronger (R2, AIC) for the suicide-bereaved sample than those bereaved by other causes, and post-hoc analyses suggest suicide-bereaved benefitted more than those bereaved by other causes from active participation in TAPS.

Keywords: military; military families; peer mentor; peer support; suicide; suicide bereavement.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Aiena B., Baczwaski S., Schulenberg S., Buchanan E. (2015). Measuring resilience with the RS–14: a tale of two samples. J. Pers. Assess. 97, 291–300. doi: 10.1080/00223891.2014.951445, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Revision). Washington, DC: Author.
    1. Baker J. M., Kelly C., Calhoun L. G., Cann A., Tedeschi R. G. (2008). An examination of posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic depreciation: two exploratory studies. J. Loss Trauma 13, 450–465. doi: 10.1080/15325020802171367 - DOI
    1. Barlow C. A., Schiff J., Chugh U., Rawlinson D., Hides E., Leith J. (2010). An evaluation of a suicide bereavement peer support program. Death Stud. 34, 915–930. doi: 10.1080/07481181003761435, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bartone P. T., Bartone J. V., Violanti J. M., Gileno Z. M. (2019). Peer Support Services for Bereaved Survivors: A Systematic Review. Omega 80, 137–166. doi: 10.1177/0030222817728204 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources