Table Of ContentPOSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH IN THE LIVES OF YOUNG ADULT TRAUMA
SURVIVORS: RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUMULATIVE ADVERSITY,
NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTION, AND SURVIVOR MISSIONS
by
Sarah L. Jirek
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
(Social Work and Sociology)
in The University of Michigan
2011
Doctoral Committee:
Professor Karin A. Martin, Co-Chair
Professor Daniel G. Saunders, Co-Chair
Associate Professor Beth Glover Reed
Associate Professor Jeffrey D. Morenoff
© Sarah L. Jirek
2011
To my parents, Jim Jirek and Lindy Jirek.
I would never have made it this far without your love and support.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Early in the dissertation process, I realized that completing a dissertation is very
similar to one of my passions: training for and running marathons. Both experiences
require significant commitment, entail a long and exhausting process, require slow and
steady effort, have harder and easier “miles,” and, eventually, reward hard work. The
metaphor falls short, however, when it comes to understanding others’ contributions to
my academic success. Yes, when running past marathons, there have often been family
members or friends who have cheered me on from the sidelines during a few brief (but
greatly appreciated) moments of the race. However, it is possible, albeit more lonely, to
train for and finish a marathon without the assistance of others. In this regard,
completing a dissertation and completing a marathon are quite different from one
another.
I have been fortunate to have been surrounded by a plethora of family members,
friends, and faculty mentors who have provided support, guidance, and assistance at
many crucial junctures—from the early days of imagining this project through the final,
long days of writing. Although my name alone appears on the byline of the title page, I
could not have completed this project without the help of many others. Subsequently, I
would like to take this opportunity to thank numerous individuals for their many
contributions to my dissertation and to my life.
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First of all, I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional love and
unwavering support. Dad, I will always remember how you urged me, as a second-
grader, to excel academically and to start dreaming of college scholarships. It has meant
the world to me that you have always believed that I could do it. Mama, thanks for the
countless hours spent on the phone (and praying) to support me through the many ups
and downs of twelve years of college and graduate school. I am grateful that you care so
much about the details of my life. Thank you both for helping me to become the person I
am today!
I am also extremely grateful to my husband, Nathan Passavant, for loving and
supporting me throughout the stressfulness, insomnia, long hours, and general craziness
of the entire dissertation (and job market) process. Thank you for helping me with
transcription, photocopying, and data entry. Thanks, too, for your many sacrifices of
time, sleep, and energy this past year. Somehow, we made it! I eagerly anticipate our
life together in Florida—which will undoubtedly be a lot more fun, relaxing, and
adventurous than these past twelve months.
Other family members and friends have played important roles in my life during
graduate school. I am grateful to my in-laws, Glenn and Sharon Passavant, for their
prayers and encouragement, and for making and bringing us delicious, home-cooked
meals when we were too busy to cook throughout this busy year.
I am grateful for Zakiya Luna, who has given me tons of sound advice and
support over the years. I cannot count how many important conversations and
brainstorming sessions we have had, particularly during our long runs together. You
continue to amaze me with your knowledge of resources, your generosity, your
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involvement in so many pursuits, and your ability to achieve the kind of “work-life
balance” to which the rest of us only aspire.
Special thanks to my “dissertation accountability partner,” David Flores, for
pushing me to start writing long before I felt ready. If not for David, I might still be
coding.
I am also grateful for the friendships of Ashley White, Tammy Pong, Ethan
Schoolman, and Paul Sutherland. The four of you gently encouraged me to take breaks
from writing to have some fun, patiently listened during my many venting sessions,
tolerated my mood swings (ranging from elation to despair) during this crazy year, and
provided me with needed stress relief. Your friendships enrich my life and keep me
(relatively) sane.
Other family members and friends who have believed in my abilities through all
of these years include: Daniel and Jill Jirek, Steve and Tanni Baird, Anne Baird, Susan
Passavant, Benjamin Passavant, Alison Lewis, Joy Blackburn, and Marnie Leavitt.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my Social Work co-chair, Daniel Saunders. Thank
you for your generous gift of time throughout every phase of this project—from inception
to conclusion. You are clearly committed to my development as a scholar and to this
dissertation. Thank you for years of mentorship, for writing dozens of recommendation
letters on my behalf, for providing me with quick yet thorough feedback on multiple
drafts of almost everything I have written these last few years, for challenging me to
consider doing a mixed-methods dissertation in the first place, and for reminding me that
this dissertation is simply the beginning of my life’s work, rather than my last word on
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the topic. Your mentorship has been one of the defining characteristics of my years in
graduate school, and I am grateful for all of the time and energy you have invested in me.
My Sociology co-chair, Karin Martin, has also played a substantial role in my
graduate career, in general, and my dissertation, in particular. Thank you for your gentle
guidance, mentorship, pragmatism, and brilliant insights. Thanks, too, for challenging
me to think more deeply about my work’s sociological contributions, for guiding me
through my academic job search, and for quiet words of encouragement when it felt like I
would never finish this project. It was during the first semester of your year-long
qualitative practicum course that I fell in love with qualitative methods and was
captivated by the power of narrative. Now, only months away from beginning to teach
my own qualitative course, my greatest hope is that I can spark some of my own
students’ intellectual and methodological endeavors, as you have inspired mine.
My other dissertation committee members, Beth Glover Reed and Jeffrey
Morenoff, have both asked challenging questions and provided insightful feedback at
important moments during the course of this project. Thank you, in particular, for
critiquing my practice job talk (based on an earlier version of Chapter 3) and for urging
me to grapple with important theoretical, methodological, and “real-world” issues.
PJ McGann has been a wonderful mentor and friend, beginning with my first
semester as a Graduate Student Instructor in her Criminology course. I am grateful for
our numerous conversations on successfully navigating academic life while remaining
true to who we are, for your insightful feedback on my practice job talk, and for your
having helped me to hone my skills as an educator. Your model of thoughtful
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scholarship and engaged teaching are an inspiration to me, and you have played an
important role in helping me to rediscover my own passion for teaching.
Other faculty mentors who have been instrumental in developing my thinking on
this project include Ian Robinson, Richard Tolman, and Pamela Smock.
I would like to thank my research assistants for all of their hard work on this
project. My transcription team included Krista Dornbusch, Tammy Pong, Nathan
Passavant, Amber McKinley, Anika Fassia, and Victoria Peebles. In addition, Krista and
Nathan performed the tedious task of entering all of the survey data into a database.
Alexander Schwank and Stephanie Giegler also worked on the database and data entry in
the early stages. Ashley Blas worked on formatting tables. Many thanks to you all!
David Childers, at the University of Michigan’s Center for Statistical
Consultation and Research, provided invaluable assistance with my statistical analyses. I
am also grateful for the members of the Department of Sociology’s Fall 2010 Gender and
Sexuality Workshop, as well as the members of Daniel Saunders’ Fall 2010
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research on Interpersonal Violence class, for giving me
feedback on an early version of Chapter 3.
In addition, I am grateful for the expressions of support I have received from my
soon-to-be colleagues at the University of Tampa: Norma Winston, Bruce Friesen, and
Ryan Cragun. I look forward to joining you soon!
This project was made possible, and generously supported, by the University of
Michigan’s School of Social Work (through a research grant), the Department of
Sociology (through a research grant and the Bodine grant), the Alliance for Graduate
Education and the Professoriate (through a research grant), and the Horace H. Rackham
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School of Graduate Studies (through a research grant and a One-Term Dissertation
Fellowship). Additional financial support was provided by the Oneida Indian Tribe of
Wisconsin.
Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the forty-six trauma
survivors who participated in this research project and who shared with me their stories
of joy, pain, confusion, coping, recovery, and personal growth. You all amazed me,
inspired me, and taught me a lot in the process. Thank you for trusting me with your life
stories. I hope that I have depicted the complexities of your experiences accurately and
that your words will bring hope and healing to others.
To everyone that I have listed above, thank you for the important roles that you
have played in this process. I apologize to anyone that I may have inadvertently
neglected to mention. You have improved and enriched this dissertation (and my life)
immeasurably, and I am sincerely grateful to you all!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. x
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................... xi
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... xii
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1
2. CUMULATIVE ADVERSITY AND OTHER CORRELATES AND
PREDICTORS OF POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH ...................................... 27
3. NARRATIVE RECONSTRUCTION AND TRAUMA SURVIVORS’
DEVELOPMENT OF POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH ................................. 87
4. “I REALLY WANT TO HELP PEOPLE”: SURVIVOR HELPERS,
SURVIVOR MISSIONS, AND SURVIVORS' EMPOWERMENT ............ 137
5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ..................................................... 197
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 231
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