Reviews the book, Terrorism and disaster: New threats, new ideas by Lee Clarke (2003). The authors attempts to explore the way that the experience of a terrorist disaster impacts on human lives. The other essays are primarily devoted towards either directly or indirectly exploring the impact of fear on the public imagination. Many of the authors advance the now well-rehearsed criticism of President Bush's promotion of the politics of fear. Despite its title, this book does not so much provide new ideas about terrorism as reflect the cultural sensibilities that prevail. Its focus is not terrorism but the sense of powerlessness that appears to dominate the post-9/11 landscape. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This study aimed to assess 1) the relationship between risk-taking behaviors and exposure to terrorism, 2) the relationship between posttraumatic symptoms and risk-taking behaviors, and 3) gender differences in the type and frequency of risk-taking behaviors and their differential associations with posttraumatic symptoms. The participants were 409 Israeli adolescents 15 to 18 years of age. Exposure to terrorism was assessed with a questionnaire developed specifically for the Israeli security situation. Posttraumatic symptoms were measured with the University of California at Los Angeles Reaction Index. Functional impairment was measured with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children. Risk-taking behavior-and the adolescents' perceptions of such behavior-was assessed with a self-report questionnaire. Israeli adolescents exposed to continuous threats of terrorist attacks reported high levels of risk-taking behaviors. The severity of risk-taking was associated with greater terrorism exposure. Adolescents suffering from posttraumatic symptoms reported more risk-taking behaviors than nonsymptomatic adolescents. Although there was no gender difference in the degree of exposure to terrorism, boys reported taking more risks than girls. The association between posttraumatic symptoms and risk-taking behaviors was stronger in boys than girls. Functional impairment, gender, avoidance symptoms, level of exposure, and degree of fear predicted the severity of risk-taking behaviors. Clinicians and educators should be aware of the strong link between posttraumatic distress and risk-taking behaviors. Risk-taking behaviors may be a manifestation of functional impairment and posttraumatic distress, especially for boys exposed to terrorism.

A school-based intervention for preventing and reducing children's posttraumatic stress-related symptoms, somatic complaints, functional impairment, and anxiety due to exposure to terrorism was evaluated. In a quasi-randomized controlled trial, elementary school students were randomly assigned to an eight-session structured program, Overshadowing the Threat of Terrorism or to a waiting list control comparison group. Two months postintervention, the study group reported significant improvement on all measures. The authors conclude that a school-based universal intervention may significantly reduce PTSD-related symptoms in children repeatedly exposed to terrorist attacks and propose that it serve as a component of a public mental health approach dealing with children exposed to ongoing terrorism in a country ravaged by war and terrorism. [Author Abstract]

State health policy for terrorism preparedness began before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, but was accelerated after that day. In a crisis atmosphere after September 11, the states found their policies changing rapidly, greatly influenced by federal policies and federal dollars. In the 5 years since September 11, these state health policies have been refined. This refinement has included a restatement of the goals and objectives of state programs, the modernization of emergency powers statutes, the education and training of the public health workforce, and a preparation of the health care system to better care for victims of disasters, including acts of terrorism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The relation between viewing television coverage of a mass disaster and the development of PTSD is poorly understood. A cohort of New Yorkers without baseline probable PTSD (N = 1787) was assessed 1 year following the September 11, 2001, attacks. The primary outcome was new-onset probable PTSD assessed through a validated scale, and the primary exposure was number of hours of September 11 anniversary news coverage viewed. A total of 99 (5.6%) of participants had developed probable PTSD at the 1-year follow-up. Watching 12 or more hours of September 11 attack anniversary news coverage was associated with a 3.4-fold increased risk of new-onset probable PTSD (p = 0.004). Exposure to television coverage of the September 11 anniversary was associated with new-onset probable PTSD among a cohort of New Yorkers with no probable PTSD at baseline. [Author Abstract] KEY WORDS: disaster; PTSD; television; media

Research on the psychological impact of terrorism on youth is reviewed and evaluated. Children having proximal contact with terrorism show elevated posttraumatic stress, separation anxiety, and/or other symptoms. Following a terrorist attack, youth proximal and distal to the attack are exposed to a vast amount of attack-related media coverage and exposure to such media coverage is associated with post-attack PTSD symptomatology. However, the research is inchoate, including an insufficient scope and methodological limitations. Research has yet to examine the impact that exposure to an extended context of threat, expectation, and alert has on child development. Importantly, how are children influenced by secondhand terrorism -- the context in which cultural influences disproportionately attend to the possibilities, rather than probabilities, of future terrorism? Research is needed to evaluate the impact of terrorism on psychopathology (beyond PTSD), functional impairment, and ethnic stereotyping in youth, and to examine the efficacy of psychological programs that strive to redress the problems of youth affected by terrorism. [Author Abstract] KEY WORDS: children; disasters; media; PTSD; second-hand terrorism; terrorism

The study reported here assesses the severity of post-traumatic symptoms and emotional distress among hospital social workers who provided emergency treatment to victims after terrorist attacks in Israel. We examined the contributions of personal and professional exposure to terrorism, professional training, supervision, sense of professional confidence, and optimism to the severity of distress among 144 social workers at eighteen hospitals in various parts of the country. Emotional distress was assessed by two measures: secondary traumatization (post-traumatic symptoms after treating victims of terrorist attacks), and additional psychiatric symptomatology. Only 7 per cent of the workers reported secondary traumatization, and their levels of distress on accompanying psychiatric symptoms were significantly lower than the norms for the general Israeli population. We also found that professional exposure to terrorism, sense of professional confidence and optimism contributed significantly to the explained variance in distress. The discussion deals with the findings in light of the rise in terrorism in recent years and the professional literature on the topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The purpose of this treatment effectiveness study was to evaluate the flexible application of a manualized cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for PTSD and related symptoms in survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Treatment delivery ranged from 12 to 25 sessions; therapist experience ranged from no prior training to extensive training in CBT; and training and supervision of clinicians in the treatment manual was considerably less than that required in a randomized clinical trial (RCT). Paired t-tests demonstrated significant pre-post reductions in symptoms of PTSD and depression for the flexible application of the treatment. A benchmarking analysis revealed that the moderate-to-large effect sizes found for these variables were similar to those obtained in an RCT of the same treatment. Furthermore, effect sizes on measures of outcomes particularly relevant to this population of mass violence survivors such as functional impairment, use of alcohol and drugs to cope, and use of social support to cope, were also medium to large. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)

A major terrorism event has several important consequences for officials involved in the investigation and prosecution of terrorist activities. Such events are likely to bring increased scrutiny by both public policy officials and the media. The article uses data from the American Terrorism Study to compare the period before and after two of the most dramatic terrorist events on U.S. soil: the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks. The results suggest that whether intentional or not, major terrorism events result in the government's pursuing cases that are generally less serious and less complicated, and those cases are treated much more like "traditional" crimes by the prosecution. Following the aftermath of a major event, terrorist defendants are more likely to behave like traditional offenders and are less likely to be convicted as a result of a trial than are terrorists who are indicted before major events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

There are now replicated findings that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms related to the September 11, 2001, attacks occurred in large numbers of persons who did not fit the traditional definition of exposure to a traumatic event. These data are not explained by traditional epidemiologic "bull's eye" disaster models, which assume the psychological effects are narrowly, geographically circumscribed, or by existing models of PTSD onset. In this article, the authors develop a researchable model to explain these and other terrorism-related phenomena by synthesizing research and concepts from the cognitive science, risk appraisal, traumatic stress, and anxiety disorders literatures. They propose the new term relative risk appraisal to capture the psychological function that is the missing link between the event and subjective response in these and other terrorism-related studies to date. Relative risk appraisal highlights the core notion from cognitive science that human perception is an active, multidimensional process, such that for unpredictable societal threats, proximity to the event is only one of several factors that influence behavioral responses. Addressing distortions in relative risk appraisal effectively could reduce individual and societal vulnerability to a wide range of adverse economic and ethnopolitical consequences to terrorist attacks. The authors present ways in which these concepts and related techniques can be helpful in treating persons with September 11- or terrorism-related distress or psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)