Multiple theories have proposed the possibility of post-traumatic growth (PTG)—positive personality change occurring after an especially negative life experience (Jayawickreme & Blackie, 2014). Much PTG work documents the importance of close others in the expression and magnitude of this phenomenon. Romantic partners, in particular, appear to play an especially important role in PTG, sometimes facilitating/hindering growth and experiencing growth themselves—even when they do not directly experience a negative event. In three studies, each examining longitudinal samples from different countries (i.e., the United States, the Netherlands, and Switzerland), I examined trajectories of post-traumatic growth (i.e., increases in extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness; decreases in neuroticism) among individuals and their romantic partners. Each study used growth curve modeling to parse apart patterns of personality change, determine if experiencing ostensibly negative life events (directly or vicariously) influences these patterns, and examine the role of potentially influential relationship characteristics. I found that, while individuals’ own negative life events and the negative life events of their partners were occasionally associated with positive personality change, this was relatively rare, and the effect sizes of these potentially impactful life events were relatively small. The relationship variables examined in this series of studies (i.e., support, relationship satisfaction, responsiveness, and closeness) were largely unassociated with adaptive personality trait change, although, when examined as outcomes, I found some evidence of PTG on the dyadic level (i.e., relationships improving after a negative life event). The final study also modeled trajectories of both self and observer (i.e., partner) reported personality change, finding that individuals’ perceptions of their personality change after a negative event varied slightly from their partners’ perceptions of their change.
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