FACTORS AFFECTING POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH OF BEREAVED STUDENTS TO UNRESTS IN SOUTHERN THAILAND
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/aisr.2025.3Keywords:
Bereaved Students, Mindfulness, Perceived Social Support, Posttraumatic Growth, WisdomAbstract
This cross-sectional research was aimed at developing and validating a structural equation model of posttraumatic growth (PTG) of bereaved students from the civil unrest in southernmost provinces of Thailand with empirical data, as well as examining the effects of mindfulness, wisdom, and perceived social support with PTG. Participants were 281 bereaved university students studying in the academic year 2020, losing loved ones from unrest situations, and answering an online questionnaire about mindfulness, perceived social support, wisdom, and PTG. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The results of validating the structural equation model of PTG suggested the model fitted with the empirical data (Chi-Square = 66.07, p = 0.25, df = 59, GFI = 0.96, AGFI, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, and RMSE = 0.02). The variables in the model accounted for 27% of the total variance of PTG. Mindfulness and perceived social support had significant direct effects on the PTG of the bereaved students at .01 levels, with .32 and .31 effect sizes, respectively. Application of this model to develop PTG for bereaved students should entail mindfulness training and enhancement of perceived social support; however, wisdom should be studied further.
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