Expressing thoughts and feelings following a collective trauma: Immediate responses to 9/11 predict negative outcomes in a national sample.

Abstract

Collective traumas can negatively affect large numbers of people who ostensibly did not experience events directly, making it particularly important to identify which people are most vulnerable to developing mental and physical health problems as a result of such events. It is commonly believed that successful coping with a traumatic event requires expressing one's thoughts and feelings about the experience, suggesting that people who choose not to do so would be at high risk for poor adjustment. To test this idea in the context of collective trauma, 2,138 members of a nationally representative Web-enabled survey panel were given the opportunity to express their reactions to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on that day and those following. Follow-up surveys assessing mental and physical health outcomes were completed over the next 2 years. Contrary to common belief, participants who chose not to express any initial reaction reported better outcomes over time than did those who expressed an initial reaction. Among those who chose to express their immediate reactions, longer responses predicted worse outcomes over time. Implications for myths of coping, posttrauma interventions, and psychology in the media are discussed.

Physiological and cognitive consequences of suppressing and expressing emotion in dyadic interactions

“…More long-term, engaging in suppression predicts weaker social connections (English et al, 2012). The extant literature-with exceptions in boundary conditions such as cross-cultural comparisons (Butler et al, 2009) and long-term adjustment in response to trauma (Bonanno et al, 2004;Seery et al, 2008)-illustrates that engaging in suppression has negative consequences for affective regulators.…”

A eficácia das estratégias de coping após um evento traumático: uma revisão sistemática

“…No entanto, quando pensamentos e sentimentos relacionados com o evento traumático são demasiado intensos, separar pensamentos e emoções pode permitir que o indivíduo processe gradualmente o que precisa ser integrado (Erdelyi, 1990;Lazarus, 1983;Roth e Cohen, 1986) alcançando melhores resultados quanto ao ajustamento psicológico A relutância cultural das sociedades orientais para expressar sentimentos negativos e pensamentos perturbadores após um evento traumático, motivada pelo uso de estratégias de coping coletivistas, parece ser consistente com os resultados que relacionam a resiliência à repressão de emoções negativas (Coifman et al, 2007;Seery et al, 2008). Assim, avaliar a predisposição das pessoas para expressar sentimentos negativos pode ajudar a identificar quem está em risco de psicopatologia posterior e que poderia, portanto, beneficiar de uma intervenção precoce eficaz.…”

Supporting young crime victims: discursive environments and formula narratives

“…Narrating in itself has thus come to be regarded as a form of emotion management that, eventually, will make it possible for the client, or the crime victim, to move on with her or his life (see Pennebaker 2000). At the same time, other studies indicate that there is a need for reassessing the ideas behind the dominant professional discourse regarding emotion management in the case of crime victims (Hjern 2004, Seery et al 2008. Based on his research on the effects of traumatic incidents and emotion management among newly arrived refugee children, Hjern (2004) argues that traumatic experiences do not have the kind of long-term impact on the future life of victims that has been previously assumed.…”

“…While many might wish for and also actively seek professional help, others choose to try to forget; both options Journal of Youth Studies 719 need to be respected for at least equally good reasons (ibid.). Seery et al (2008) argue that bottling up feelings in the aftermath of a traumatic experience could in fact be more beneficial than opening up and expressing thoughts and feelings related to that experience. This research (Hjern 2004, Seery et al 2008 supports the idea, advanced in this article as well, that the dominant professional discourse on the absolute need for emotions management for crime victims might instead place a burden on the help-seeking youths, considering the demands it entails on how to feel, respond, and act (Nilsson 2003, p. 144, Ryding 2005) Á in other words, due to the feeling rules contained in this discourse (Hochschild 1983, Loseke 2003.…”