Posttraumatic Growth in the Context of Spirituality and Religion in Cancer Survivors

The study is focused on the level of posttraumatic growth and its relation to the importance of spirituality and practicing of religious belief in cancer survivors. The level of posttraumatic growth was measured using PTGI (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory; Tedeschi and Calhoun 1996); the spirituality was measured by two simple items: 1) Spirituality is important in my Life; 2) Practicing of spirituality is important in my life. Results of the study showed positive correlations between the importance of spirituality in lives of cancer survivors and the overall posttraumatic growth. Strong positive correlations between spirituality and the dimension of spiritual change were confirmed. Cancer survivors practicing Christian faith achieved higher levels of posttraumatic growth as opposed to unbelieving cancer survivors. Christian cancer survivors achieved higher levels of posttraumatic development in the domain of relating to others as opposed to patients professing other religions.