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

在他们生命中的某个时刻，大多数人都会遇到会对他们的生活进程和方向产生重大影响的压力事件。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受住经验的检验。例如，与广为流传的关于应对过程的神话相反，这些数据未能证明人们对压力生活事件的普遍反应。尽管人们普遍认为，情绪和认知对压力的反应遵循一个明确的模式，但几乎没有经验证据表明，反应的各个阶段是有序的。在应对各种负面生活经历时，通过研究群体和个体的差异和相似之处，将增强对应对一般过程的理解。主要研究人员开始对2001年9月11日恐怖袭击事件的早期情绪、认知和社会反应进行纵向调查。采用匿名的网络调查方法，从具有全国代表性的成年人和青少年/父母二人组的大样本(从4个经历过社区创伤的城市：纽约市、俄克拉何马城、迈阿密和科罗拉多州利特尔顿)收集了9-14天、2个月和6个月的压力和应对数据。本项目继续这项前瞻性研究，在样本之后有四个具体目的：1)调查有助于解释国家创伤事件反应的个体差异的心理和社会过程；2)识别对9/11袭击和后续可能发生的事件的长期适应的早期预测因素；3)比较以前经历过创伤事件(无论是个人还是在他们的社区)与以前没有经历过创伤的人对9/11事件的反应；4)前瞻性地调查心理和社会过程，这些过程有助于更广泛地解释各种压力生活事件的反应差异。9·11袭击在全国范围内的无与伦比的影响，加上现有全国样本的大量和代表性，以及对这些事件的情感、认知和社会反应的早期收集，为纵向考察个人和社区如何更广泛地应对压力生活事件提供了一个极好的机会。这样的检查可以在没有困扰先前研究的几个具体方法限制的情况下进行(例如，小样本或人口统计上的同质样本)。在这一努力中收集的信息可以更全面地说明应对过程，从而推动这一领域今后的概念性工作。此外，它还可以促进对受创伤个人的独特需求的了解，并提供信息，帮助确定面临随后困难的风险的个人。有了这些数据，在卫生保健专业人员和广大社区中设计和实施的教育和干预工作可以更好地了解情况，更具成本效益，更敏感地满足民众的需求。

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.