AUTHOR=Xu Yanhua , Yang Guang , Liu Luan , Wu Xinyi 

TITLE=The influence of deliberate rumination on the post-traumatic growth of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic and the moderating role of self-efficacy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1043402

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1043402

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>To understand the relationship between deliberate rumination and post-traumatic growth and the mechanisms affecting this relationship, we constructed an adjustment model to test the impact of deliberate rumination on the post-traumatic growth of college students and the moderating role of self-efficacy during the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic.</p></sec><sec><title>Study design and setting</title><p>A total of 881 college students from a university of science and technology in Guangdong Province, China, completed a questionnaire that measured deliberate rumination, post-traumatic growth, and self-efficacy. SPSS (version 26) and the PROCESS plug-in (version 4.0) were used for correlation and moderation analyses.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The correlation analysis showed that deliberate rumination was positively correlated with post-traumatic growth (<italic>r</italic> = 0.353, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01) and self-efficacy (<italic>r</italic> = 0.261, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01). Self-efficacy was also positively correlated with post-traumatic growth (<italic>r</italic> = 0.466, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01). In addition, we found that self-efficacy had a regulatory effect on the relationship between deliberate rumination and post-traumatic growth (<italic>R</italic><sup>2</sup> = 0.287, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001) and that this effect was significant.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The results show that deliberate rumination can be a positive predictor of post-traumatic growth and can play a certain role in fostering such growth. In addition, self-efficacy is a moderator that plays a buffer role between deliberate rumination and post-traumatic growth. These results contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that affect post-traumatic growth.</p></sec>