Prevention Rather Than Cure? Primary or Secondary Intervention for Dealing With Media Exposure to Terrorism

Abstract

The authors examined the efficacy of primary versus secondary intervention in moderating state anxiety and state anger from media‐based exposure to terrorism. Two hundred participants, allocated to a terrorism or nonterrorism media exposure and to antecedent or subsequent therapeutic or control intervention, were assessed for state anxiety and state anger responses. Results confirmed that higher postexposure response in the terrorism media exposure group was successfully moderated by primary but not by secondary therapeutic intervention. Findings illuminate the need in this domain for intervention that is sensitively assessed for content and sequencing.

“Andrà tutto bene”: Associations Between Character Strengths, Psychological Distress and Self-efficacy During Covid-19 Lockdown

“…The study’s authors suggested that, in highly-stressful situations, seeking information and enjoying knowledge could have a detrimental effect, exacerbating psychological distress instead of alleviating it. Studies on media exposure after terrorist attacks show, for instance, that media consumption is associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms (Ahern et al 2002 ), and anxiety (Slone and Shoshani 2010 ). A study on the impact of Covid-19 (Huang and Zhao 2020 ) also found that the amount of time spent each day focusing on news about the infection was significantly associated with anxiety in Chinese general population.…”

The Resilience Function of Character Strengths in the Face of War and Protracted Conflict

“…In contexts of exposure to war, terrorism and conflict, the search for knowledge and information may not necessarily be helpful in alleviating stress. To the contrary, some research has shown that high levels of media exposure to episodes of terrorism leads to increased anxiety and psychiatric symptoms ( Slone and Shoshani, 2010 ). Similarly, high levels of consumption of news coverage after 9/11 were found to be associated with increased post-traumatic symptoms ( Ahern et al, 2002 ).…”

“Andrà tutto bene”. The effect of character strengths on psychological distress and self-efficacy during Covid-19 lockdown

“…The study's authors suggested that, in highly-stressful situations, seeking information and enjoying knowledge could have a detrimental effect, exacerbating psychological distress instead of alleviating it. Studies on media exposure after terrorist attacks show, for instance, that media consumption is associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms (Ahern et al, 2002), and anxiety (Slone & Shoshani, 2010). A study on the impact of Covid-19 (Huang & Zhao, 2020) also found that the amount of time spent each day focusing on news about the infection was significantly associated with anxiety in Chinese general population.…”