The relationship between social support and posttraumatic growth in the context of loss of a loved one due to death in a German and Turkish sample
Summary
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social support and posttraumatic growth (PTG) after bereavement in different cultures, focusing on the cultural dimension individualism-collectivism. 281 participants from Germany, representing individualistic countries, and Turkey, representing collectivistic countries, completed the short-form of the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory and the Social Support Inventory. It was expected that social support is positively associated with PTG. In addition, it was hypothesized that the relationship between social support and PTG is mediated by culture. As expected, results indicated that bereaved, who perceived social support, reported more PTG than bereaved, who perceived less or no social support. Even though results confirmed that bereaved from Turkey perceived social support stronger than bereaved from Germany, results did not confirm that Turkish participants show higher levels of PTG than German participants. Thus, the relationship between social support and PTG was not mediated by the cultural dimension individualism-collectivism. Implications based on these findings were discussed.