Optimism and Traumatic Stress: The Importance of Social Support and Coping¹

Abstract

This study examined the effects of optimism following traumatic stress and pathways through which optimism may act. Rescue and recovery workers at the crash site of US Air Flight 427 (n= 159) were studied 2, 6, 9, and 12 months after the crash to examine optimistic outlook, social support, coping, and stress. As predicted, a more optimistic disposition was associated with less self‐reported distress, less use of avoidant and wishful‐thinking coping strategies, greater use of problem‐focused and seeking‐social‐support coping, and greater availability of social support. Contrary to expectations, coping did not account for the relationships observed between optimism and stress responding. Social support explained some of the effects of optimism on coping and stress, but these mediational effects varied over time. Findings suggest that optimism affects stress and coping directly and indirectly by affecting how much social support is available.

Effects of optimism, interpersonal relationships, and distress on psychosexual well-being among women with early stage breast cancer

“…These findings replicated studies linking optimism to greater social support (Abend & Williamson, 2002;Brissette et al, 2002;Dougall, Hyman, Hayward, McFeeley, & Baum, 2001). The women in our sample who were more optimistic consistently perceived more availability of social support at concurrent and subsequent assessments.…”

Mental illness and suicidality after hurricane Katrina

“…39,40 A more plausible explanation is that the effects of increased mental illness after Hurricane Katrina on suicidality were offset by protective factors activated by the hurricane. Although this posa a sibility has not been studied in previous trauma studies, postatraumatic personal growth in areas such as selfaefficacy, 41 optimism, 30 hope 42 and perceived social support 43 have been documented after disasters, and these changes have been linked to low levels of postadisaster distress. 44 Our findings go beyond these earlier results, though, to suggest that some dimensions of postatraumatic pera a sonal growth might be protective against suicidality among people with clinically significant mental illness.…”

“…29,30 We focus on five such dimensions based on their presa a ence in the two most commonly used inventories of postatraumatic personal growth: 31,32 postatraumatic increases in emotional closeness to loved ones, faith in the ability to rebuild one's life, spiria a tuality or religiosity, meaning or purpose in life, and recognition of inner strength or competence.…”

Coping and post-traumatic stress in male firefighters.

“…A traumatic event is an event in which a person has "experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others" (DSM-IV-TR, 2000, p. 467) which was vastly outside the normal realm of human experience (Dougall, Hyman, Hayward, McFeeley, & Baum, 2001). It is important to note that this definition does not include experiences such as severe humiliation or disappointment (Brunello et al, 2004).…”

“…Furthermore, firefighters who have stronger support systems tend to cope with critical incidents better than those firefighters without strong support systems. For example, firefighters with adequate support networks tend to dream or fantasize less as a coping mechanism after experiencing a traumatic event, release less epinephrine, experience lower stress overall, and experience fewer long-term intrusions (Dougall et al, 2001), while 6 stressors from home or work (i.e., marital discord; new baby; increased workload; company downsizing; etc.) that reduce the individual's support system have been found to increase the severity of PTSD symptoms (Bolton et al, 2004).…”