Searching for and finding meaning in collective trauma: Results from a national longitudinal study of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Abstract

The ability to make sense of events in one’s life has held a central role in theories of adaptation to adversity. However, there are few rigorous studies on the role of meaning in adjustment, and those that have been conducted have focused predominantly on direct personal trauma. The authors examined the predictors and long-term consequences of Americans’ searching for and finding meaning in a widespread cultural upheaval—the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001—among a national probability sample of U.S. adults (N = 931). Searching for meaning at 2 months post-9/11 was predicted by demographics and high acute stress response. In contrast, finding meaning was predicted primarily by demographics and specific early coping strategies. Whereas searching for meaning predicted greater posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms across the following 2 years, finding meaning predicted lower PTS symptoms, even after controlling for pre-9/11 mental health, exposure to 9/11, and acute stress response. Mediation analyses suggest that finding meaning supported adjustment by reducing fears of future terrorism. Results highlight the role of meaning in adjustment following collective traumas that shatter people’s fundamental assumptions about security and invulnerability.

In the Wake of National Trauma: Psychological Reactions Following the Charlie Hebdo Terror Attack

“…Substantial proportions of French people felt shifts in their perceptions of personal safety, thought more about their own mortality, and said they would shift their voting patterns as a consequence. These results expand previous study on 9/11 terrorist attacks (5). Clinicians should be aware that national trauma takes its toll on mental health in various ways including mortality salience, shift in political views and sense of safety.…”

The Meaning of Collective Terrorist Threat: Understanding the Subjective Causes of Terrorism Reduces Its Negative Psychological Impact

“…Most previous studies addressed the positive impact of personal meaning (i.e., the personal growth and benefit aspects) of coping with threat and trauma (Updegraff et al, 2008). The present studies took a new approach and showed that positive effects of meaning can also be found when meaning is provided on a rather intellectual basis (i.e., providing motives and a rationale for a terrorist attack).…”

“…This positive coping effect of meaning has been found for a broad variety of extreme adversities, such as coping with the horrifying experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp (Frankl, 1963), loss of family members (Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson, 1998), loss of a child by the sudden infant death syndrome (McIntosh et al, 1993), severe injuries (Bulman & Wortman, 1977), experiences of violence (Currier, Holland, & Neimeyer, 2006), and terrorism (Updegraff et al, 2008). The positive effects of meaning on coping with adversity have been mainly explained by two processes: (a) meaning provides people with an increased sense of control and security (Heider, 1958;Kelley, 1967), which makes the world more predictable (Roese & Olson, 1996), and (b) meaning attenuates the emotional intensity of unexpected events (Wilson, Centerbar, Kermer, & Gilbert, 2005;Wilson, Gilbert, & Centerbar, 2003; for an overview, see also Updegraff et al, 2008).…”

“…Research on meaning consistently revealed that the ability to make sense of negative experiences helps to cope with adversity (Frankl, 1963;McIntosh, Silver, & Wortman, 1993;Updegraff, Silver, & Holman, 2008). This positive coping effect of meaning has been found for a broad variety of extreme adversities, such as coping with the horrifying experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp (Frankl, 1963), loss of family members (Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson, 1998), loss of a child by the sudden infant death syndrome (McIntosh et al, 1993), severe injuries (Bulman & Wortman, 1977), experiences of violence (Currier, Holland, & Neimeyer, 2006), and terrorism (Updegraff et al, 2008).…”

Living with Vulnerability and Resiliency: the Psychological Experience of Collective Trauma

“…The processed neuropsychological messages elicit a variety of corresponding physiological and emotional reactions that inform both the conscious and unconscious self to adopt different coping skills or defense mechanisms for survival [3]. These patterns of the response style applied by the individuals are likely to affect their ability to access resources from their relational support systems among family and friends, or to recount the sense of identity from communal involvement, or to reconstruct the meaning of their existence and the traumatic disaster itself (Figure 1) [4].…”