In recent years, there has been increased interest in trauma-related shame and guilt and their relationship to mental health. Little is known, however, about shame and guilt following mass traumas, such as terrorism. This study investigates the potential associations of trauma-related shame and guilt with posttraumatic stress (PTS) reactions after the terrorist attack of July 22, 2011 on Utøya Island in Norway. Interviews were conducted with 325 of the 490 survivors 4 to 5 months after the event. Multiple linear regression analyses were employed to investigate associations. In the month previous to the interview, 44.1% (n = 143) of participants had experienced at least some guilt for what happened during the attack, and 30.5% (n = 99) had experienced at least some shame. Shame and guilt were both uniquely associated with PTS reactions after adjusting for terror exposure, gender, and other potential confounders (frequent shame: B = 0.54, frequent guilt: B = 0.33). We concluded that trauma-related shame and guilt are related to mental health after mass trauma. Copyright © 2014 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

According to Ronan and Johnston (2005) the number of people who will experience a disaster will double by 2050 from one billion people to two billion people. Since 1985 there has been an almost 400% increase in global natural disasters (Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, 2007). Researchers managing the global terrorism database report a similar increase in terrorist events over the last decade, with almost 5,000 events annually. Some of the worst disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, Haiti Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, and Philippines Typhoon occurred in the past decade alone. Disasters are becoming more complex, with primary disasters (e.g., earthquake) often triggering secondary disasters (e.g., nuclear meltdown). Research shows that disasters often leave a significant psychological and spiritual 'footprint' on affected communities. Thus, the purpose of this article is to introduce readers to empirical research on the psychology of religion/spirituality and disasters as well as to introduce a framework for spiritually oriented disaster psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Purpose - The paper examines terrorism in its relationship to the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to review research findings and propose a model of the effects of terrorism on work-related outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - A literature review was undertaken mainly using academic sources. Findings - Potential or actual terrorist attacks create a significant fear level for the individual, causing negative work attitudes. In turn, negative attitudes lead to undesirable work behaviors. Research limitations/implications - Relatively little research has been conducted to determine how organizations may be affected by terrorism via the reciprocal relationship between employee and organizational well-being. Originality/value - This paper explores important yet still under-researched areas of management and organizational interventions to mitigate the deleterious effects of workplace terrorism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

A terrorist attack is an adverse event characterized by both an event-specific stressor and concern about future threats. Little is known about age differences in responses to terrorism. This longitudinal study examined generalized distress, posttraumatic stress responses, and fear of future attacks following the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks among a large U.S. national sample of adults (N = 2,240) aged 18'“101 years. Individuals completed Web-based surveys up to 6 times over 3 years post 9/11. Multilevel models revealed different age-related patterns for distress, posttraumatic stress, and ongoing fear of future attacks. Specifically, older age was associated with lower overall levels of general distress, a steeper decline in posttraumatic stress over time, and less change in fear of future terrorist attacks over the 3 years. Understanding age differences in response to the stress of terrorism adds to the growing body of work on age differences in reactions to adversity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The impact of ongoing terror over time has received little attention. This study assesses longitudinally prevalence and predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms' trajectories, namely resistance, resilience, late-onset and chronicity in the course of intensive and ongoing terror. Two surveys were performed at a two-year interval among 153 Jewish Israeli adults. Results show probable PTSD prevalence, number of traumatic stress related symptoms (TSRS), and rate of severe posttraumatic symptomatology (PTSS) to increase over time (from 18.2% to 31.2%). With this, many (66.7% of those with PTSD and 39.3% of those with PTSS at wave 1) recovered. Late-onset of severe PTSS (19.6% of the sample) was predicted by income reduction, a major lifetime traumatic event, sense of threat, dissociation, coping via disengagement and low mood. Chronicity was predicted by sense of threat, pessimism, dissociation and disengagement. Continuous exposure to terror has a strong negative impact on mental health. Secondly, even within a chronic situation of terror, a large proportion of individuals with elevated levels of posttraumatic symptomatology recover over time; third, prolonged exposure to terror may also exacerbate symptomatology, but not per-se trigger new PTSD cases.

Endorsement of authoritarian attitudes has been observed to increase under conditions of terrorist threat. However, it is not clear whether this effect is a genuine response to perceptions of personal or collective threat. We investigated this question in two experiments using German samples. In the first experiment ( N = 144), both general and specific authoritarian tendencies increased after asking people to imagine that they were personally affected by terrorism. No such effect occurred when they were made to think about Germany as a whole being affected by terrorism. This finding was replicated and extended in a second experiment ( N = 99), in which personal and collective threat were manipulated orthogonally. Authoritarian and ethnocentric (ingroup bias) reactions occurred only for people highly identified with their national ingroup under personal threat, indicating that authoritarian responses may operate as a group-level coping strategy for a threat to the personal self. Again, we found no effects for collective threat. In both studies, authoritarianism mediated the effects of personal threat on more specific authoritarian and ethnocentric reactions. These results suggest that the effects of terrorist threat on authoritarianism can, at least in part, be attributed to a sense of personal insecurity, raised under conditions of terrorist threat. We discuss the present findings with regard to basic sociomotivational processes (e.g., group-based control restoration, terror management) and how these may relate to recent models of authoritarianism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Purpose: Peace promotion can include culturally relevant community programming. Some agencies have used sports such as football, for example, as a vehicle for fostering social development in fractured societies. This paper explores a football project implemented in Beslan, Russia following a 2004 terrorist attack. The purpose of this paper is to examine the approach adopted and the appropriateness of using football as a tool to promote peace amongst survivors of terrorism. It also focuses on the wider impact and significance of projects in comparable contexts. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative work examines interview data obtained from eight UK-based staff and two Russian project translators. Each British interviewee also participated in a focus group with their colleagues, which is explored here also. Findings: Football-based interventions can have beneficial outcomes in certain conditions. It is important to consider contextual nuances, the degree of cultural significance and the various necessary conditions. The use of sport for peace promotion and other forms of social involvement are reliant on a variety of components, including the design and implementation of projects and the quality of staff, together with several environmental, logistical, relational and socio-political factors. Originality/value: Despite the increase in sport-for-development initiatives, meaningful research in this context is lacking. This is particularly the case in relation to peace promotion. This paper addresses a variety of challenges, approaches and outcomes associated with such projects. This work is uniquely positioned, analysing a neglected political context; it deliberately examines an atypical, exploratory, problematic initiative executed in a dangerous environment and addresses many of the questions posed through such work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Terrorism creates lingering anxiety about future attacks. In prior terror research, the conceptualization and measurement of coping behaviors were constrained by the use of existing coping scales that index reactions to daily hassles and demands. The authors created and validated the Coping with Terror Scale to fill the measurement gap. The authors emphasized content validity, leveraging the knowledge of terror experts and groups of Israelis. A multistep approach involved construct definition and item generation, trimming and refining the measure, exploring the factor structure underlying item responses, and garnering evidence for reliability and validity. The final scale comprised six factors that were generally consistent with the authors' original construct specifications. Scores on items linked to these factors demonstrate good reliability and validity. Future studies using the Coping with Terror Scale with other populations facing terrorist threats are needed to test its ability to predict resilience, functional impairment, and psychological distress.

Acts of terrorism resulting in major disasters are just as realistic a scenario in Germany as anywhere else. Accordingly, one question that poses itself is what the structures of emergency psychosocial care following such an event should look like. The study referred to here set out to establish whether disasters with a terrorist background place specific demands on emergency psychosocial care. To what extent do the specific psychosocial needs of victims of terrorism differ from those displayed by victims of other catastrophes (natural disasters, technological disasters)? For this inquiry, experts were questioned and internet reports by people affected by such disasters were analysed. The experts' answers and the analysis of the accounts were used to extract categories for classifying the psychosocial needs of victims. No needs could be identified that were exclusively specific to terror victims. In conclusion, the article makes provisional recommendations for action to be taken and lists unresolved issues calling for further research. [Author Abstract] KEY WORDS: terrorism; emergency psychosocial care; major disaster; PTSD; needs of victims

This study focused on the effects of exposure to terrorist missile attacks on the physical and mental well being of chronic pain patients. In this prospective and longitudinal design, 55 chronic pain patients treated at a specialty pain clinic completed self-report questionnaires regarding their pain, depression and anxiety pre- and post a three week missile attack on the southern region of Israel. In addition, levels of direct and indirect exposure to the attacks were measured. Results of regression analyses showed that exposure to the attacks through the media predicted an increase in pain intensity and in the sensory component of pain during the pre-post war period, but did not predict depression, anxiety or the affective component of pain. These findings contribute to the understanding of the effects of terrorism on physical and emotional distress and identify chronic pain patients as a vulnerable population requiring special attention during terrorism-related stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)