Studying Post-Traumatic Growth Across the Adult Life Span
This chapter discusses conceptual and methodological considerations for studying post-traumatic growth across adulthood and into old age. Conceptual considerations that the authors focus on include examining character strengths and virtues longitudinally across multiple age groups and also the stability of these strengths and virtues across the life span. Methodological considerations elaborated are the use of convenience sampling in scale development and the importance of measurement invariance when examining character strengths in the context of post-traumatic growth. The authors provide examples from previous research on post-traumatic growth and discuss methods of measurement that could be utilized to enhance the validity of current measures. The chapter highlights the importance of character strengths and virtues and aims to solidify their role in the scientific community. Additionally, it highlights the need for more rigorous lines of scientific inquiry in this area due to its potential to impact healthy aging outcomes for persons across the adult life span.