Post-Traumatic Growth in Adults in Türkiye and Peru After Devastating Earthquakes at Different Times: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

The study aimed to assess post-traumatic growth (PTG) levels among adult earthquake survivors from Türkiye (Kahramanmaraş, 2023) and Peru (Pisco, 2007), who experienced earthquakes at different points in time, and to investigate the impact of sociodemographic and earthquake-related factors on PTG. In the descriptive cross-cultural study, data were collected online using the snowball sampling method through the Individual Information Form and the Post-Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Expanded (PTGI-X) from a total of 749 survivors participating (388 from Türkiye and 361 from Peru). According to one-way ANCOVA, survivors of the Peru earthquake exhibited higher PTG levels (79.91 ± 23.74) with a small effect size (η² < 0.017) compared to survivors of the Türkiye earthquake (74.23 ± 26.48), potentially due to the longer time elapsed since the traumatic event (p < .05). After adjusting for the country variable, two-way ANCOVA results revealed that those injured by the earthquake and those who had a different traumatic experience(s) after the earthquake had higher PTGI-X scores.

Keywords

adult survivor cross-cultural post-earthquake post-traumatic growth time elapsed since the earthquake

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