Abstract
This content and mini meta-analysis synthesizes the available data of four studies on posttraumatic growth of Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans and compares it to U.S. Vietnam prisoners of war and individuals with and without trauma. Posttraumatic growth is the positive changes that can occur within a person due to experiencing a trauma. The purpose of this study was to show that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were more likely to have posttraumatic growth than the comparison groups. While this hypothesis was not supported, this study did show that posttraumatic stress disorder was not the only outcome that may arise from Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans’ combat experiences. These veterans had positive growth in Personal Strength and Appreciation of Life as reported in four research studies that collected data from 5427 veterans using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI).