Abstract

A cross-sectional study examines the relationship between participation in seculardemonstrations, spiritual rituals, and communal coping, as well as the question whether thesestrategies might serve as triggers of post-traumatic growth, and enhance social well-being. Acommunal coping scale, showing satisfactory structural validity, was administered to a quasi-random sample (N = 517) of people affected by an earthquake in Chile in 2010. The resultsindicated that adaptive forms, such as communal reappraisal, regulated emotional expression,communal distraction, and communal searching for social support, were associated with socialwell-being (SWB) and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Participation in spiritual rituals was specif-ically related to communal reappraisal and contributed to post-traumatic growth. On the otherhand, participation in secular collective gatherings also reinforced post-traumatic growth, aswell as social well-being, but not through communal reappraisal. Overall, this study confirmedsocial functions of collective ritualized activities, which through the reinforcement of in-groupinteraction, foster individual post-traumatic growth and social well-being of people affectedby a collective trauma, like an earthquake. Results are discussed in the framework of a col-lective positive psychology approach on micro- and macro-social processes of coping and theirimplications for social well-being.