Reactions to Repeated Unpredictable Terror Attacks: Relationships Among Exposure, Posttraumatic Distress, Mood, and Intensity of Coping<sup>1</sup>

Somer, Eli; Ruvio, Ayalla; Sever, Ilana; Soref, Erez

doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00190.x

Cited by 58 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…These correlations are consistent with our theoretical model (i.e., that motivation for coping behaviors increases as terror-related distress and impairment increase) and recent studies on reactions to repeated acts of terrorism (e.g., Somer, Ruvio, Sever, & Soref, 2007). Positive Engagement was the only factor that was negatively related with the psychiatric outcomes (and the SF-36 subscales), implying protective capabilities, much like Acceptance in other studies (e.g., Somer et al, 2005;Somer et al, 2007). Unexpectedly, the relationships between the Fatalism subscale and the outcome variables were only small to moderate.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Development and Validation of the Coping With Terror Scale

et al. 2011

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Terrorism creates lingering anxiety about future attacks. In prior terror research, the conceptualization and measurement of coping behaviors were constrained by the use of existing coping scales that index reactions to daily hassles and demands. The authors created and validated the Coping with Terror Scale to fill the measurement gap. The authors emphasized content validity, leveraging the knowledge of terror experts and groups of Israelis. A multistep approach involved construct definition and item generation, trimming and refining the measure, exploring the factor structure underlying item responses, and garnering evidence for reliability and validity. The final scale comprised six factors that were generally consistent with the authors' original construct specifications. Scores on items linked to these factors demonstrate good reliability and validity. Future studies using the Coping with Terror Scale with other populations facing terrorist threats are needed to test its ability to predict resilience, functional impairment, and psychological distress.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Development and Validation of the Coping With Terror Scale

et al. 2011

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“…In addition, the present research contributes to the growing psychological literature on responses to terrorism. Previous work on this topic has focused on stress and traumarelated responses in the aftermath of terrorism (e.g., Chu, Seery, Ence, Holman, & Silver, 2006;Somer, Ruvio, Sever, & Soref, 2007). Other work has investigated individuals' perceptions and emotions after a particular terrorist attack, such as 9/11 (Bergstrom & McCaul, 2004) or the London bombings (Bux & Coyne, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the power of the picture: the effect of image content on emotional and political responses to terrorism

Iyer

Webster

Hornsey

et al. 2014

J Applied Social Pyschol

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ReuseUnless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version -refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher's website. TakedownIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. Viewing images of terrorism can have a powerful impact on individuals' emotional and political responses, yet little is known about the psychological processes underlying these effects. We hypothesized that the content of terrorism images will shape viewers' appraisals of the event, which will elicit specific emotions and political attitudes. Acts of terrorism deliver political messages in a dramatic fashion-a goal that is increasingly facilitated in the era of 24-hour news reporting. In an era of saturation coverage in the print, television, and Internet media, people around the world are regularly exposed to graphic images of terrorist acts. As a result, even those who are far removed from the physical sites of terrorism can experience the powerful impact of these attacks.Individuals who do not directly witness a terrorist attack tend to rely on the media to provide information about such events (Chermak & Gruenwald, 2006;Nacos, 2003 Images are capable of communicating the details of an event in succinct and captivating ways, so much so that they have been termed "visual quotations" (Sontag, 2003). A photograph is especially likely to communicate a particular frame or perspective, as any twodimensional still image is constrained in its ability to represent the individuals and objects The Impact of Media Coverage on Viewers' Understandings of TerrorismThe different terrorism frames that are presented in the media have the capacity to shape the parameters of public debate (see Picard, 1993). For instance, news coverage can bestow legitimacy upon a particular view and ensure widespread dissemination of its ideas; such publicity and status then serves to attract additional support and resources to its cause (Chermak & Gruenewald, 2006;Weimann & Winn, 1994). Given the broad reach of the media, various theoretical accounts propose that media reports should influence the viewing public's views towards the event in question (e.g., Deprez & Raeymaeckers, 2010;McLaughlin & Baker, 2010). Research has shown that exposure to media coverage of terrorism increases anxiety and fear (Gadarian, 2010;Slone, 2000), and that these emotions at least partly determine viewers' attitudes toward terrorism (Gadarian, 20...

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“…Geographic locations where terrorist attacks occur with regularity, for example, are also typically encumbered by other terrorist-related stressors, such as frequent reminders of the attack, likelihood of losing a loved one, personal injury, disruption in routine, and postdisaster stress in the community (Shalev, Tuval, Frenkiel-Fishman, Hadar, & Eth, 2006). Indeed, although studies of the September 11th attacks in New York consistently reported a positive association between geographic proximity and psychological distress (e.g., Adams & Boscarino, 2006; Boscarino, Adams, & Figley, 2004; Galea et al, 2002, 2003: Schuster et al, 2001; Silver, Holman, McIntosh, Poulin, & Gil-Rivas, 2002), population studies of terrorist attacks in Israel have often failed to reveal such associations (Bleich, Gelkopf, & Solomon, 2003; Bleich, Gelkopf, Melamed, & Solomon, 2006; Shalev et al, 2006; Somer, Ruvio, Sever, & Soref, 2007; Somer, Ruvio, Soref, & Sever, 2007).…”

Section: Disaster Outcome Depends On a Combination Of Risk And Resilimentioning

confidence: 99%

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

Bonanno

Brewin

Kaniasty

et al. 2010

Psychol Sci Public Interest

951

443

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SummaryDisasters typically strike quickly and cause great harm. Unfortunately, because of the spontaneous and chaotic nature of disasters, the psychological consequences have proved exceedingly difficult to assess. Published reports have often overestimated a disaster's psychological cost to survivors, suggesting, for example, that many if not most survivors will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); at the same time, these reports have underestimated the scope of the disaster's broader impact in other domains. We argue that such ambiguities can be attributed to methodological limitations. When we focus on only the most scientifically sound research-studies that use prospective designs or include multivariate analyses of predictor and outcome measures-relatively clear conclusions about the psychological parameters of disasters emerge. We summarize the major aspects of these conclusions in five key points and close with a brief review of possible implications these points suggest for disaster intervention.1. Disasters cause serious psychological harm in a minority of exposed individuals. People exposed to disaster show myriad psychological problems, including PTSD, grief, depression, anxiety, stress-related health costs, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. However, severe levels of these problems are typically observed only in a relatively small minority of exposed individuals. In adults, the proportion rarely exceeds 30% of most samples, and in the vast majority of methodologically sound studies, the level is usually considerably lower. Among youth, elevated symptoms are common in the first few months following a high-impact disaster, but again, chronic symptom elevations rarely exceed 30% of the youth sampled.2. Disasters produce multiple patterns of outcome, including psychological resilience. In addition to chronic dysfunction, other patterns of disaster outcome are typically observed. Some survivors recover their psychological equilibrium within a period ranging from several months to 1 or 2 years. A sizeable proportion, often more than half of those exposed, experience only transient distress and maintain a stable trajectory of healthy functioning or resilience. Resilient outcomes have been evidenced across different methodologies, including recent studies that identified patterns of outcome using relatively sophisticated data analytic approaches, such as latent growth mixture modeling.3. Disaster outcome depends on a combination of risk and resilience factors. As is true for most highly aversive events, individual differences in disaster outcomes are informed by a number of unique risk and resilience factors, including variables related to the context in which the disaster occurs, variables related to proximal exposure during the disaster, and variables related to distal exposure in the disaster's aftermath. Multivariate studies indicate that there is no one single dominant predictor of disaster outcomes. Rather, as with traumatic life events more generally, most predictor variables exert small...

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Reactions to Repeated Unpredictable Terror Attacks: Relationships Among Exposure, Posttraumatic Distress, Mood, and Intensity of Coping¹

Cited by 58 publications

References 50 publications

Development and Validation of the Coping With Terror Scale

Development and Validation of the Coping With Terror Scale

Understanding the power of the picture: the effect of image content on emotional and political responses to terrorism

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

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Reactions to Repeated Unpredictable Terror Attacks: Relationships Among Exposure, Posttraumatic Distress, Mood, and Intensity of Coping1

Cited by 58 publications

References 50 publications

Development and Validation of the Coping With Terror Scale

Development and Validation of the Coping With Terror Scale

Understanding the power of the picture: the effect of image content on emotional and political responses to terrorism

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Reactions to Repeated Unpredictable Terror Attacks: Relationships Among Exposure, Posttraumatic Distress, Mood, and Intensity of Coping¹