The Effect of Trait Anxiety on Medical Freshmen's Post-Traumatic Growth: The Mediating Role of Resilience

Abstract Trait anxiety is a risk factor for post-traumatic growth when medical freshmen are experiencing stressful events. However, little is known about whether resilience has the mediating role between trait anxiety and post-traumatic growth. The current study surveyed the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) in a sample of 295 medical freshmen. The results founded that post-traumatic growth was negatively correlated with trait anxiety, with correlation coefficients of -0.609( p < 0.01), and positively correlated with resilience, with correlation coefficient of 0.635 ( p < 0.01). Moreover, resilience could mediate the relationship between trait anxiety and post-traumatic growth. These findings provide theoretical implications to promote medical freshmen’s resilience to adapt to their life of college.