RAPID: Predicting Trajectories of Post-Disaster Adjustment from Pre-Disaster Assessments of Risk and Resilience Factors

RAPID：根据灾前风险和复原力因素评估预测灾后调整轨迹

• 批准号: 1143690
• 负责人: James Hamilton
• 金额: $ 5.43万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-15 至 2013-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1143690&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Predicting; Trajectories; Post; Disaster

Most Americans will experience a traumatic event at some time in their lives. Five to ten percent will have persistent and disabling psychological and physical problems a year or more later. In light of this fact, this project focuses on the psychological and physical (health) consequences of one kind of traumatic event, namely a natural disaster. It focuses on how different preexisting personality traits and social experiences (measured before a disaster) influence the way in which people cope with a natural disaster over time. People who adjust poorly to traumas (e.g., those who develop unexplained phsyical symptoms) have a general tendency to experience strong negative emotions. In contrast, people who adjust well have high self-esteem, are comfortable in their close relationships, and have others in their lives they can count on for physical and emotional support. However, most research documenting these findings used personality and social information gathered after a major trauma took place. Thus, it is hard to know whether the personal and interpersonal strengths listed above caused positive coping or whether positive coping allowed people to develop or maintain these positive personal and interpersonal strengths. In a large sample of undergraduate students at the University of Alabama, shortly before the area was struck by tornadoes in the spring of 2011, Dr. Hamilton happened to measure basic personality variables, emotional tendencies, and social variables that are all highly relevant to coping with trauma. Thus, Dr. Hamilton is in a unique position to follow-up on this initial survey to see if the personality and social measures collected prior to the time the tornadoes struck will predict changes in well-being over time. Natural, random variation in the extent to which people were personally affected by the tornado (e.g., whether someone's home was destroyed, whether a person knows someone who was killed or seriously injured) offers a unique opportunity, in combination with the measured social and personality variables, to see if the severity of events people experience in relation to the traumatic event plays a role in adjustment. Differences in the perceived quality of participants' social support networks will also allow the researchers to test the idea that social support can protect people from the negative consequences of stressful events. The most important outcome of the study will be a better understanding of how traumatic events influence well-being. This information will help scientists and educators to develop strategies to promote positive long-term adjustment following trauma, and to improve the effectiveness of social services deployed in response to large-scale disasters. In addition, the project will bring together student and faculty researchers who approach trauma and adjustment from a social psychological perspective with those who approach these problems from a clinical psychology perspective. This collaboration will enrich the education of both the undergraduate and graduate students involved in planning the study and in the collection and analysis of the project data. Ultimately these experiences will improve the quality of their future efforts to understand social and personality aspects of stress, coping, and adjustment.

大多数美国人在一生中的某个时候都会经历创伤性事件。 5%到10%的人在一年或更长时间后会有持续的和致残的心理和身体问题。鉴于这一事实，该项目侧重于一种创伤性事件，即自然灾害的心理和身体（健康）后果。它侧重于不同的预先存在的人格特质和社会经验（在灾害发生前测量）如何影响人们随着时间的推移科普自然灾害的方式。 对创伤适应不良的人（例如，那些出现无法解释的生理症状的人）一般倾向于经历强烈的负面情绪。 相比之下，适应能力强的人自尊心强，在亲密的关系中感到舒适，生活中有其他人可以依靠他们的身体和情感支持。 然而，大多数记录这些发现的研究都使用了重大创伤发生后收集的个性和社会信息。因此，很难知道上面列出的个人和人际优势是否导致了积极应对，或者积极应对是否允许人们发展或保持这些积极的个人和人际优势。 2011年春天，在亚拉巴马大学遭受龙卷风袭击前不久，汉密尔顿博士对该校的大部分本科生进行了抽样调查，并测量了基本的人格变量、情绪倾向和社会变量，这些变量都与创伤的应对高度相关。因此，汉密尔顿博士处于一个独特的位置，可以跟踪这项初步调查，看看龙卷风袭击前收集的个性和社会指标是否能预测幸福感随时间的变化。 人们个人受到龙卷风影响的程度的自然随机变化（例如，一个人的家是否被摧毁，一个人是否认识被杀或受重伤的人）提供了一个独特的机会，结合测量的社会和人格变量，看看人们经历的与创伤事件有关的事件的严重性是否在调整中发挥作用。参与者的社会支持网络感知质量的差异也将使研究人员能够测试社会支持可以保护人们免受压力事件的负面影响的想法。 这项研究最重要的成果将是更好地了解创伤性事件如何影响福祉。这些信息将有助于科学家和教育工作者制定战略，促进创伤后的积极长期调整，并提高为应对大规模灾害而部署的社会服务的效力。此外，该项目将汇集学生和教师的研究人员谁接近创伤和调整从社会心理学的角度与那些谁接近这些问题从临床心理学的角度。这种合作将丰富参与规划研究以及收集和分析项目数据的本科生和研究生的教育。最终，这些经验将提高他们未来努力的质量，以了解压力，应对和调整的社会和个性方面。