Posttraumatic Growth in Adolescence: The Role of Religiosity, Distress, and Forgiveness

This study examines the role of religiosity in posttraumatic growth in Israeli religious, traditional, and secular adolescents (n = 1482; aged 16) who were exposed to terror events. Results showed that religious youth reported higher levels of growth than secular youth. Among secular and traditional youth posttraumatic symptoms and an unwillingness to forgive were positively associated with growth. For religious youth forgiveness was positively associated with growth. Fear of terror was positively associated with growth across the groups. These findings imply that since the predictors of growth vary by religiosity, it has different meanings depending on the religiosity of the youth. Growth seems to be a function of distress among secular and traditional but not religious youth. This extends our understanding of the role of religiosity in the posttraumatic growth process among adolescents following terror.