Abstract:

Divorce is a traumatic event which has negative effects on the psychological health of individuals. It’s known that after a divorce, people can experience positive changes in certain aspects of their lives, that is, they can experience psychological growth. In this direction, the aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between meaning in life and psychological resilience levels of individuals who have experienced divorce and their post-traumatic growth. Relational screening technique which is one of the quantitative research methods was used in the study. 345 people living in 55 different cities of Turkey and having a divorce background participated in the research. 200 (58%) of the participants were female and 145 (42%) were male. "The Post Traumatic Growth Scale", "The Brief Resilience Scale", "The Meaning in Life Scale" were used as data collection tools in the study. The effects of meaning in life and psychological resilience on post-traumatic growth were examined creating the Structural Equation Model with AMOS Program. According to the study data showed a normal distribution and the reliability coefficients of data collection tools were sufficient. It’s found that there is a significant and positive correlation between post-traumatic growth and resilience (r=0.29, p<.001), presence of meaning (r=0.49, p<.001) and search for meaning (r=0.12, p<.001). Goodness-of-fit values of the model tested with SEM were found to be sufficient. As a result of SEM, present meaning (β= .50), meaning seeking (β= .27), and resilience (β= .29) were found to positively affect post-traumatic growth. In addition, it was determined that meaning of life and resilience explained (R2) 35% of the variance in post-traumatic growth.

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