The Curvilinear Association Between Posttraumatic Distress and Posttraumatic Growth Among Pellet Gun Victims: The Moderating Roles of Time Since Trauma and Age

Since 2010, the use of pellet guns in Indian-administered Kashmir has led to serious physical and psychological consequences among a growing number of victims. However, no research to date has examined the association between posttraumatic distress and posttraumatic growth (PTG) within this population. Previous research conducted on other types of trauma exposure has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the nature and directionality of this association; namely, whether it is linear or curvilinear. Moreover, this inconsistency may also be due to the effects of other variables, such as time since trauma and age. In the present study, we investigated whether the association between posttraumatic distress and PTG among pellet gun victims is best explained as linear or curvilinear and tested whether this association was moderated by time since trauma and/or age. Using purposive sampling, 120 pellet gun victims were recruited from Indian-administered Kashmir. The results of quadratic hierarchical regression suggested that an inverted U-shaped curvilinear association, sr² = 0.07 (medium effect), was a better fit over and above a linear term, sr² = 0.06 – 0.08 (medium effect). The moderation test further revealed that this effect was present across time but became apparent, as an inverted U-shape, 18 to 24 months posttrauma, sr² = 0.04 (small effect); age, however, was not found to influence this association. These findings held even after controlling for the effects of confounding variables. The present findings suggest that across time, moderate levels of posttraumatic distress are associated with the highest levels of PTG.