Role of Hope and Perceived Social Support in Predicting Posttraumatic Growth Among Parents of Disappeared Persons in Kashmir

The present study explores the role of hope and perceived social support among the parents of disappeared persons in Kashmir. This study is conducted to explore the role of hope and social support in posttraumatic growth among victims of Kashmir. Positive psychological states like hope and perceived social support could be effective in minimizing the negative outcomes associated with stressful experiences emanating from conflict situations in people living in conflict zones. In this study 150 victims (fathers of disappeared persons) were taken from four main districts of Kashmir, Baramulla, Kupwara, Kulgam, and Srinagar. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants. Posttraumatic Growth Inventory developed by Tedeschi and Calhoun in 1996, The Hope Scale (Snyder, Harris, Anderson, Holleran, Irving, & Sigmon, 1991) and The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1998) were used for data collection. Results revealed that significant difference was found between the scores of hope and perceived social support on posttraumatic growth among the victims.