Coping with Community-Based and Personal Trauma: National Response Following September 11th

在他们生命中的某个时刻，大多数人都会遇到压力事件，这些事件会对他们的生活过程和方向产生重大影响。然而，经过几十年的研究，很明显，社会上关于个人如何应对生活创伤的许多假设都没有经过实证检验。例如，与广泛持有的关于应对过程的神话相反，这些数据未能证明对压力生活事件的普遍反应。尽管人们普遍认为，对压力的情绪和认知反应遵循一个明确的模式，但很少有经验证据表明反应阶段的顺序是有序的。对应对的一般过程的理解将通过对群体和个体差异以及相似之处的检查得到加强，以应对各种消极的生活经历。首席研究员开始对2001年9月11日恐怖袭击的早期情感、认知和社会反应进行纵向调查。采用基于网络的匿名调查方法，在911事件发生后的9-14天、2个月和6个月，从全国代表性的成年人和青少年/父母二人组中收集了压力和应对数据（从4个经历过社区创伤的城市：纽约、俄克拉荷马城、迈阿密和利特尔顿，CO .）。本项目继续前瞻性研究，以下四个具体目标：1)调查有助于解释个体对国家创伤性事件反应差异的心理和社会过程；2)识别对9/11袭击和随后可能发生的事件进行长期调整的早期预测；3)比较之前经历过创伤事件（个人或社区）的个体与之前没有经历过创伤的个体对9/11事件的反应；4)前瞻性地研究有助于解释对各种压力生活事件的反应差异的心理和社会过程。911袭击对全国的影响是空前的，再加上现有国家样本的庞大和代表性，以及对这些事件的情感、认知和社会反应的早期收集，为纵向研究个人和社区如何更普遍地应对压力生活事件提供了一个绝佳的机会。这样的检查可以进行，没有几个特定的方法上的限制，这些限制一直困扰着以前的研究（例如，小或人口同质的样本）。在这项工作中收集的信息可以更广泛地阐明应对过程，从而推进该领域未来的概念性工作。此外，它可以进一步了解创伤个体的独特需求，并提供信息，帮助识别有后续困难风险的个体。有了这些数据，在保健专业人员和整个社区中设计和实施的教育和干预工作就可以更了解情况，更具成本效益，更了解民众的需求。

At some point in their lives, most people encounter stressful events that can have a major impact on the course and direction of their lives. However, after decades of research, it is clear that many assumptions held in society about how individuals respond to life's traumas have not survived empirical test. For example, in contrast to widely held myths about the coping process, the data fail to demonstrate universal reactions to stressful life events. Despite the popular belief that emotional and cognitive responses to stress follow a clear pattern, there is little empirical evidence for an orderly sequence of stages of response. Understanding the general process of coping will be enhanced through examination of group and individual differences, as well as similarities, in response to a variety of negative life experiences.The principal investigator started a longitudinal investigation of early emotional, cognitive, and social responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Using an anonymous Web-based survey methodology, stress and coping data were collected from a large nationally representative sample of adults and adolescent/parent dyads (with an over-sampling from 4 cities that have experienced community-based trauma: New York City, Oklahoma City, Miami, and Littleton, CO) at 9-14 days, two months, and six months following September 11. This project continues the prospective study, following the sample with four specific aims: 1) To investigate the psychological and social processes that help explain individual differences in response to a national traumatic event; 2) To identify early predictors of long-term adjustment to both the 9/11 attacks and subsequent events that may occur; 3) To compare responses to the 9/11 events among individuals who have previously experienced a traumatic event (either personally or in their communities) with those who have not previously encountered trauma; and 4) To investigate prospectively the psychological and social processes that help explain variation in response to various stressful life events more generally.The unparalleled nationwide impact of the September 11th attacks, coupled with the large and representative nature of the existing national sample and the early collection of emotional, cognitive and social responses to these events, provides a remarkable opportunity to examine longitudinally how individuals and communities respond to stressful life events more generally. Such an examination can be conducted without several specific methodological limitations that have plagued prior research (e.g., small or demographically homogenous samples). Information collected in this effort can illuminate the coping process more generally so as to advance future conceptual work in this area. Moreover, it can further the understanding of the unique needs of traumatized individuals and provide information to help identify individuals at risk for subsequent difficulties. With these data in hand, educational and intervention efforts that are designed and implemented among health care professionals and the community at large can be better informed, more cost-effective and more sensitive to the needs of the populace.