Initial Insights From a Study of Emotions and Positive Personality Change in Syrian Origin Young Adults Who Have Recently Resettled in the Netherlands

Post-traumatic growth is a compelling idea (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2014), yet, extant research has often employed retrospective reports of change, rather than examining change over time. In Karakter, we followed a sample of Syrian origin young adults who recently resettled in the Netherlands (initial N = 168) four times over a 13-month period to examine experiences of adversity, emotions, and positive personality change. We provide initial insights by narrating the changes, challenges, and opportunities we encountered in the research. We describe how we incorporated open science practices in Karakter. We propose analyses that describe the demographic characteristics (e.g., education level, length of stay in the Netherlands, and family members present in the Netherlands and in Syria), experiences of adversity (i.e., past traumatic experiences and current post-migration problems), positive personality traits (i.e., attachment, resilient coping, empathy, gratitude, and compassion), and the Big Five personality traits of the people in our sample. We close by suggesting good practices for researchers who are interested in conducting similar studies with populations that are traditionally considered hard-to-reach in the future.