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. 2025 Apr;64(2):781-802.
doi: 10.1007/s10943-024-02167-5. Epub 2024 Nov 4.

Spirituality, Resilience and Vicarious Posttraumatic Growth Among Orthopedic Nurses in Nigeria

JohnBosco Chika Chukwuorji  1   2   3   4 , Lawrence Chijioke Aluma  5 , Peace Nnenna Ibeagha  5 , John E Eze  5 , Aaron Adibe Agbo  5 , Rosemary Chizobam Muomah  6 , Adebisi Victory Okere  7 , Endurance Avah Zacchaeus  8
Affiliations

Spirituality, Resilience and Vicarious Posttraumatic Growth Among Orthopedic Nurses in Nigeria

JohnBosco Chika Chukwuorji et al. J Relig Health. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

We examined whether the salutogenic nature of resilience is the pathway of association, as well as a moderating factor, between spirituality and vicarious posttraumatic growth (VPTG). Two hundred Nigerian orthopedic nurses completed the Resilience Scale (RS-14), Spiritual Involvement and Belief Scale-Revised (SIBS-R), and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF). We found that greater spirituality and resilience were directly associated with high VPTG. Resilience helped to explain (mediated) the relationship between spirituality and VPT such that spirituality was linked to VPTG by virtue of high resilience. Moderation analysis indicated that resilience was most robustly associated with increased VPTG for nurses with high spirituality compared to those with moderate and low levels of spirituality. Findings may be relevant in integrative/complementary approaches to trauma work.

Keywords: Nursing; Resilience; Spirituality; Trauma; Wellbeing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Ethics approval: Ethics approval was obtained from the research review committee of the Department of Psychology in University of Nigeria, Nsukka. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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