TPC Journal V7, Issue 4 - FULL ISSUE

334 The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 4 study who endorse greater levels of religious commitment will have higher PTG scores. There are contradictory results concerning the relationship between PTSD symptoms and PTG in traumatized populations. While some studies reported a positive relationship between PTG and PTSD (Hussain & Bhushan, 2011), others reported a negative relationship (Kimhi, Eshel, Zysberg, & Hantman, 2010). Proponents of the positive relationship suggested that higher distress symptoms lead to high growth. Contrarily, those who reported the negative relationship reported that distress predicts growth. Other studies have found no relationship between distress and PTG (Widows, Jacobsen, Booth-Jones, & Fields, 2005). Yet, others have identified a curvilinear relationship (Kleim & Ehlers, 2009; Kunst, 2010), in which results have indicated that higher scores of PTG are related to mild PTSD symptoms and vice versa. Post-traumatic distress and growth need not be mutually exclusive. Results of several studies have indicated that it is possible for both PTSD symptoms and positively perceived effects of the trauma experience to coexist, even in war-related traumatized populations (Powell et al., 2003). In these studies, participants may have experienced the trauma to a greater degree; however, they reported that using their internal resources, like optimism and spirituality, contributed to their positive perception of the experience. Based on the literature reviewed, this study is situated on the following hypotheses: 1. Between 10–50% of participants will meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Furthermore, both males and females will exhibit co-occurring PTSD and PTG, with females showing higher scores in both PTSD and PTG than males. 2. Those who report high optimism, despite the war-related experiences, will have higher PTG scores than those with low optimism. 3. Those with high optimism will also score high on religious commitment. 4. Those with high religious commitment will score higher on PTG. In sum, the objective of this paper was to identify post-traumatic trajectories within a sample of former war-related IDPs in a developing country. In the process of assessing the trajectories, the study will also establish reliability of Western-based instruments in a non-Western population. Method Participants Participants for the study were adults from the West African country of Liberia who, because of the decade-long civil conflict, became IDPs or refugees. The only West African country not colonized by any of the European colonial masters (i.e., Britain, France, and Portugal), Liberia became a known republic in the 1820s. This occurred when freed slaves were brought from the Americas to the coast of Liberia. The indigenous people inhabiting the land prior to the arrival of the freed slaves were dissatisfied with how the latter, referred to as Americo-Liberians , governed the land (Gerdes, 2013; Verdier et al., 2008). This dissatisfaction festered until its culmination in an over decade-long civil conflict (1989–2003). It is estimated that more than 10% of the population died in the civil conflict (Verdier et al., 2008). This study used a multi-stage sampling method (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2015). In the initial stage, criterion sampling was used for adult Liberians who were known to be former refugees and IDPs. The number of participants gained after the first sampling stage was less than the expected 500 participants. Snowball sampling was therefore employed to reach the target sample size. Because Liberia has no database of residents, participants had to be contacted face-to-face at community meetings, colleges, churches, and mosques.