Abstract
Objective
To examine the effects of character strengths on psychosocial outcomes after mild
complicated to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Design
Prospective study with consecutive enrollment.
Setting
A Midwestern rehabilitation hospital.
Participants
Persons with mild complicated to severe TBI (N=65).
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Community Integration Measure, Disability Rating Scale, Modified Cumulative Illness
Rating Scale, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Satisfaction with Life Scale,
Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, and Wechsler Test of Adult Reading.
Results
Character virtues and strengths were moderately associated with subjective outcomes,
such that there were fewer and less strong associations between character virtues/strengths
and objective outcomes than subjective outcomes. Specifically, positive attributes
were associated with greater life satisfaction and perceived community integration.
Fewer and less strong associations were observed for objective well-being; however,
character strengths and virtues showed unique value in predicting physical health
and disability. Positive affectivity was not meaningfully related to objective outcomes,
but it was significantly related to subjective outcomes. In contrast, negative affectivity
was related to objective but not subjective outcomes.
Conclusions
Given the strength of the associations between positive aspects of character or ways
of perceiving the world and positive feelings about one's current life situation,
treatments focused on facilitating these virtues and strengths in persons who have
experienced TBI may result in better perceived outcomes and potentially subsequently
lower comorbidities.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
CIM (Community Integration Measure), DRS (Disability Rating Scale), GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale), MCIRS (Modified Cumulative Illness Rating Scale), PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), PANAS-NA (PANAS-Negative Affectivity), PANAS-PA (PANAS-Positive Affectivity), SWLS (Satisfaction With Life Scale), TBI (traumatic brain injury), VIA–IS (Values in Action Inventory of Strengths), WTAR (Wechsler Test of Adult Reading)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 07, 2014
Footnotes
Supported by the U.S. Department of Education-National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research–The Field Initiated Project (grant no. H133G080064).
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
