Browsing by Author "Laiba Hassan Khan"

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    Family environment, materialism, gratitude, and post-traumatic growth in young adults with loss of loved one
    (UMT, Lahore, 2025) Laiba Hassan Khan; Khadijah Batool Abid; Fiza Shahzad
    This research study aimed at exploring the relationship amongst family environment, gratitude, materialism, and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in young adults who have experienced the loss of a loved one, a parent or sibling within the past one to five years. Guided by Bowen’s Family Systems Theory and Olson’s Circumplex Model of Family Functioning, the study aimed at examining how interpersonal dynamics, personal values, and emotional traits influence psychological adaptation following loss. A purposive sampling strategy was used combined in data collection to recruit 200 participants (50% men, 50% women), aged 18–25 years (M = 22.37, SD = 1.97). Participants completed a set of validated measures: The Family Communication Scale and Family Satisfaction Scale (Olson et al., 1987), Gratitude Questionnaire–Six Item Form (GQ-6) (McCullough et al., 2002), Materialism Values Scale (MVS) (Richins & Dawson, 1992), and the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Pearson correlation analysis indicated significant positive associations of family communication, family satisfaction, and gratitude with PTG, and a negative association between materialism and PTG. On the contrary, multiple linear regression revealed that materialism was the only significant predictor of PTG among all variables, suggesting that in this cultural setting, material values might be playing an exceptional role in helping individuals deal with and mature through hardship. T-test showed no statistically significant differences between males and females on most of the study variables and no statistically significant differences between participants from nuclear and joint families on any of the five study variables. Interpretation of the results highlights the importance of emotionally supportive and communicative family environments in fostering adaptive coping after the loss of a loved one. Gratitude emerged as a protective psychological trait that can reduce distress and promote positive transformation. But interestingly in this framework, materialism emerged to be the coping mechanism leading towards PTG.