Coping Self‐Efficacy as a Mediator of Distress Following a Natural Disaster

Abstract

Social‐cognitive theory and conservation‐of‐resources theory were utilized to understand individual differences in psychological response to natural disaster. Coping self‐efficacy, lost resources, social support, and optimism were assessed along with demographic variables in predicting distress following Hurricane Opal. Participants included 67 residents of Okaloosa County, Florida. Multiple regression analyses indicated that coping self‐efficacy was the strongest predictor of general distress and trauma‐related distress. Loss of resources and gender were also important predictors of general distress. Path analyses demonstrated that lost resources directly influenced general distress, social support, optimism, and coping self‐efficacy. These analyses also indicated that coping self‐efficacy perceptions mediated the relationships between loss of resources and trauma‐related distress, social support and both trauma and general distress, and optimism and both types of distress. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Síntomas de depresión, ansiedad y estrés post-traumático en adolescentes siete meses después del terremoto del 27 de febrero de 2010 en Chile

“…gasto en infraestructura; Shoaf & Rottman, 2000), se hace imprescindible el catastro del inicio como del curso temporal de dichos trastornos (Neria, Besser, Kiper & Westphal, 2010) y de aquellas características personales (Benight, Swift, Sanger, Smith & Zeppelin, 1999), interpersonales y sociales (Bokszczanin, 2008) Así, a pesar que la evidencia empírica sobre las consecuencias psicológicas en distintos tipos de poblaciones a partir de la experiencia de un evento traumático es vasta y diversa (Neria et al, 2010;Norris, Friedman, Watson, Byrne, Díaz & Kaniasty, 2002), a más un año del terremoto del 27 de febrero, la mayoría de la literatura sobre este fenómeno versa sobre ciencias de la ingeniería y física de la tierra. En lo que respecta a la psicología, sólo existen dos estudios que han evaluado el impacto de dicho fenómeno, uno en salud mental (Leiva & Quintana, 2010) y otros en variables relacionadas al ejercicio laboral (Jiménez & Cubillos, 2010), ambos en adultos.…”

Posttraumatic stress disorder following asthma attack: the role of agency beliefs in mediating psychiatric morbidity

“…More specifically, self-efficacy is an important mediator between trauma and posttraumatic stress (Benight et al, 1999;, and between chronic illness and psychological co-morbidity (Arnstein et al, 1999;Wu et al, 2004). Likewise, our study suggests that people with little confidence in their ability to cope with and manage their asthma (low self-efficacy) are at increased risk of developing serious mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD.…”

“…As a cross-sectional design, causation cannot be determined; this study cannot in itself say that increased symptoms lead to low self-efficacy, and subsequent psychiatric symptoms; though the data are congruent with this model. Future research should investigate further using longitudinal or experimental designs (Benight et al, 1999). Additionally, the sample size was not sufficient to explore differences in culture, age, and other demographic variables.…”

“…We will investigate established constructs related to agency beliefs, namely selfefficacy and Locus of Control (LoC), which have been linked to psychological outcome following trauma (Arnstein et al, 1999;Benight et al, 1999;Maciejewski, 2000;. That is, people's beliefs about whether they have an important role to play in their own perception, experience, and response to adverse events, has been shown to explain the relationship between trauma and subsequent PTSD and psychiatric co-morbidity following trauma.…”

Entrepreneurial Identity

“…Traumatic events can destroy individuals' fundamental beliefs that life is benevolent and meaningful and that the self is worthy (Janoff-Bulman 1989). We have a strong understanding of how individuals cope with such events (Benight et al 1999;Bonanno 2004), but we are only beginning to discover trauma's effects on people's vocational and entrepreneurial identities.…”