Relationship between purposeful rumination and post-traumatic growth of college students who experienced childhood trauma: a regulated intermediary model

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between positive coping and post-traumatic growth in trauma experiencers, as well as the mediating role of positive coping and the moderating role of social comprehension support. Methods: In this study, 811 college students aged 18-28 who had traumatic experience were selected through the Traumatic Events Lifelong Experience Questionnaire as the research subjects, and the survey covered many provinces in China, and the purpose rumination scale, post-traumatic growth and positive coping scale and social comprehension rating scale were used for investigation. Results: Correlation analysis showed that purposive rumination, positive coping and post-traumatic growth were significantly correlated. Regression analysis showed that purposive rumination had a significant direct effect on post-traumatic growth (β=0.148, P<0.001) . The results of the mediated moderation model showed that positive coping and social comprehension support played a chain mediating role in the relationship between purposive rumination and post-traumatic growth, and social comprehension support played a moderating role in the relationship between positive coping and post-traumatic growth. Furthermore, the simple slope analysis showed that the predictive effect of purposive rumination on PTG was not significant when the perceived social support was high, and the positive predictive effect of purposive rumination on PTG was significant when the perceived social support was low, indicating that the predictive effect of purposive rumination on PTG gradually increased with the decrease of perceived social support