Abstract

ARIAS, Patricio R.  and  GARCIA, Felipe E.. CRECIMIENTO POSTRAUMÁTICO EN SOBREVIVIENTES DE LOS TERREMOTOS EN ECUADOR Y CHILE. Ajayu [online]. 2019, vol.17, n.2, pp.317-331. ISSN 2077-2161.

After a natural disaster, survivors may suffer post-traumatic stress symptomatology by disrupting their daily activities; over time, survivors can experience personal positive changes that in three areas: a) changes in self-perception, b) changes in interpersonal relationships, and c) changes in the philosophy of life. This positive transformation in the individual exposed to a life threatening or third party situation is the Post-Traumatic Growth. The present study analyzes the level of posttraumatic growth in a university student population (N = 450) surviving the earthquake of April 16, 2016 on the coast of Ecuador. A version adapted for Ecuador by Arias and García (2017) of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory was used, showing a high internal consistency (α = .95). It was obtained that in the Ecuadorian sample, age correlated positively with Posttraumatic Growth (r = .21), especially in its dimension of spiritual growth (r = .29). In the Ecuadorian population it was found that the Relationship with Others dimension grew more ( = 3.14) than the other dimensions. In contrast, the Chilean student population exposed to the Chilean earthquake of 2010, presented a higher growth in Self-perception ( = 3.30). In general, the Chilean sample shows higher post-traumatic growth than the Ecuadorian sample. This explains from the presence of a higher frequency of earthquakes in Chile, which leads to higher levels of preparedness to face natural disasters or also to time from the experience to the data collection, greater in the case of Chile (2 years).

Keywords : Resilience; Positive Psychology; Flousrishing; Posttraumatic Stress; Natural Disasters.

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