Becoming and developing: Personal growth in the wake of parenthood and grandparenthood

In this chapter, the author moves away from traumatic events, existential threats, and defensive processes of meaning restoration in a further analysis of the meaning-making process. She argues that certain positive life events, such as becoming a parent or grandparent, contribute to a person's sense of meaning, perhaps for biological reasons as important as fear of death. In her view, these life transitions provide a natural opportunity to intuitively sense the meaning that emerges from the situation itself (using King's concept of meaning sensing) and to experience personal growth. The author reviews a recent series of studies examining the possibility of psychological growth in the wake of the transitions to parenthood and grandparenthood and identifies some of the internal and external resources that contribute to this experience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)