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

University Of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa AL

Investigators

Abstract

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.