Centrality of the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent post-traumatic growth in nurses: Exploring the moderating role of social connectedness.
Catarina Vitorino, Maria Cristina Canavarro, Carlos Carona
PMID 40241637WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses who viewed the pandemic as central to their life story reported more post-traumatic growth six months later, but this link was strongest when they also felt socially connected.
High social connectedness amplified the growth from perceiving the event as life-changing.
Key findings
01Perceiving the pandemic as central to one's identity predicted higher post-traumatic growth six months later.
02Social connectedness moderated this relationship, with the link between event centrality and growth becoming stronger as feelings of social safety increased.
03The model explained 24% of the variance in post-traumatic growth, indicating a medium effect size.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The attrition rate was very high, with only 180 of 672 nurses (26.8%) completing the follow-up, which may introduce selection bias. Participants were recruited via online and convenience sampling, meaning the sample may not represent all nurses, particularly those without internet access or who are less digitally engaged. The study relied entirely on self-report measures, which can be subject to recall bias or social desirability. The findings are specific to nurses in Portugal during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting generalizability to other healthcare professions or cultural contexts. The cross-sectional nature of the baseline data and the specific timing of the follow-up mean the results may not capture the fluctuating nature of pandemic-related stress.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive–Behavioral Intervention at the University of Coimbra and a doctoral grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that the high attrition rate (73%) does not affect the validity of the findings. The nurses who dropped out differed from those who stayed in terms of marital status, infection history, and isolation, which could skew the results toward those with specific demographic or exposure profiles.