Coping with the Threat of Terror

Boston University Medical Campus, Boston MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The possibility of terrorism is a sobering facet of life in the post-9-11 world. Yet, little is known about how people cope with, or the extent to which their mental health and functioning is impaired by, the threat of terror. Because terror accomplishes its goals by posing a looming threat it is important to examine how people cope with the possibility of terror. Existing coping measures fail to assess the intricacies of coping or the specific methods employed in the aftermath of terrorism. Israel is a natural laboratory to study how people cope with terror. In this application, we have three objectives: (1) to employ state-of-the-art test construction methods to generate a psychometrically sound measure that indexes the specific dimensions of how Israelis cope with the threat of terrorism; (2) to construct a checklist that measures the functional impact related to the threat of future terror; and (3) to test a causal model that posits a number of mediators and moderators of functional impairment related to the threat of terrorism, including characteristic methods of coping with terror. The research will produce measures of coping with terror and related functional impairment that can be modified for broad use in the US. There is a substantial need in the public health and government policy arenas (e.g., Department of Homeland Defense, CDC, NIMH, SAMHSA) to generate knowledge that can be used to advise citizens in the face of terror, especially concerns about future mass violence episodes, such as bioterrorism, dirty bombs, and so on. Informational materials have been created and published by the American Psychiatric and Psychological Associations and various government agencies to advise people about how they should cope with these anxieties; however, these materials have not been based on research. Our results will provide tools to study the way people cope with unprecedented worries about future terror, which will greatly enhance the public health response to terror. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]