An examination of trauma narratives: Narrative rumination, self-reflection, and identity in young adulthood

Publication date: October 2019Source: Journal of Adolescence, Volume 76Author(s): Kelly A. Marin, Amanda ShkreliAbstractIntroductionTrauma has the potential to challenge the self and identity development in ways unlike other personal experiences and, undoubtedly, necessitates meaning-making. The purpose of this study is to expand understanding of how young adults make meaning of traumatic experiences and how those processes, either adaptive self-reflection, meaning-making, or narrative rumination, relate to identity development.MethodsUsing qualitative methods and self-report measures, we examined reflective and ruminative narrative processes in 32 trauma narratives written by a sample of young adults. Narratives were examined as a function of identity status (measured by the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire; Balistreri, Busch-Rossnagel, & Geisinger, 1995) and level of identity distress (measured by the Identity Distress Survey; Berman, Montgomery, & Kurtines, 2004).Results and conclusions: The narrative analysis suggested that young adults who constructed their narratives in adaptive self-reflective ways that were absent of rumination made meaning of their traumatic experience is ways that reflected an integrated sense of self. In contrast, those young adults who constructed their narrative in ruminative ways, characterized by brooding, self-doubt or criticism had unsuccessful meaning-making efforts. A combination of identity commitment (i.e., achieved and foreclosed) and ...
Source: Journal of Adolescence - Category: Child Development Source Type: research