Journal of Counseling & Development ■ January 2018 ■ Volume 96 53 © 2018 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. Received 06/10/16 Revised 10/19/16 Accepted 11/29/16 DOI: 10.1002/jcad.12177 Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is a process whereby individuals show positive personal growth after experiencing a signifi- cant life-altering event or circumstance (Rogan, Fortune, & Prentice, 2013). Scholars have begun to examine PTG for individuals living with a variety of chronic illnesses, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Arroll & Howard, 2013), HIV/AIDS (Amos, 2015; Sherr et al., 2011), stomach cancer (Sim, Lee, Kim, & Kim, 2015), and acquired brain injury (Rogan et al., 2013). Continued research surrounding PTG is all the more relevant when considering the potential for positive emotional and physical health benefits as a result of experiencing such growth. The ability to find benefit from crisis or difficult life events has shown to be related to an increase in coping abilities and a greater sense of well-being (Danhauer et al., 2013, Park & Ai, 2006). In addition, the presence of PTG may help to attenuate the negative impact of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Bluvstein, Moravchick, Sheps, Schreiber, & Bloch, 2013), while also allowing for increased empathy and altruism (Joseph & Linley, 2006). Finally, some studies have uncovered positive physical health benefits associated with PTG, such as strengthened immune systems, less time being hospital- ized, and increased medication adherence in individuals living with HIV/AIDS (Milam, 2004; Murphy & Hevey, 2013; Sawyer, Ayers, & Field, 2010). Melissa Zeligman, Melanie Varney, Ramona I. Grad, and Mary Huffstead, Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, Georgia State University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Melissa Zeligman, Department of Counsel- ing and Psychological Services, Georgia State University, PO Box 3980, Atlanta, GA 30302-3980 (e-mail: mzeligman@gsu.edu). Posttraumatic Growth in Individuals With Chronic Illness: The Role of Social Support and Meaning Making Melissa Zeligman, Melanie Varney, Ramona I. Grad, and Mary Huffstead This study aimed to assess the predictive nature of social support, meaning making (presence of meaning and search for meaning), and demographic factors on perceived posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a sample of adults living with chronic illness (N = 110). Regression analyses indicated that presence of meaning and gender served as the strongest predictors, together accounting for 22% of the variance in PTG. Presence of meaning also moderated the relationship between social support and PTG, supporting the unique contribution of meaning making on PTG. Keywords: posttraumatic growth, chronic illness, social support, meaning making, gender Research reporting on the existence of PTG for people living with chronic illness has shown that personal growth is present within a variety of samples. For example, 53.3% of stomach cancer survivors (N = 122) reported moderate to high levels of PTG (i.e., scores greater than or equal to 3 on a scale of 0 to 5 on the 21-item Korean version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory [PTGI]; Sim et al., 2015), and individuals living with acquired brain injury (N = 100) had a mean score for PTG of 53.76 (SD = 22.88, possible range = 0–105), which also suggested that moderate growth was present (Rogan et al., 2013). The prevalence of moder- ate to high levels of PTG in varying samples supports the need to better understand this phenomenon by examining possible predictors (i.e., social support, meaning making, and demographic characteristics), as well as moderating relationships between predictors and PTG. PTG continues to warrant further empirical support, especially when com- pared with its highly studied counterpart, PTSD. In a sys- tematic literature review on PTSD and PTG for individuals with HIV, 33 papers were identified in the study for PTSD compared with only three papers focusing on PTG (Sherr et al., 2011). Given the dearth of research exploring PTG, Sherr and colleagues (2011) made a call for more evidence-based research surrounding this topic. Individuals with chronic illness have identified the impact of social isolation (Arroll & Howard, 2013) and social support (Adams, 2015; Livneh