Virtual Issue - Trauma in the Context of Mass Shootings

Patricia K. Kerig, Editor in Chief
Journal of Traumatic Stress

This virtual special issue marks the third in this newly-initiated series from the Journal of Traumatic Stress, intended to offer resources to inform research and intervention in rapid response to traumatic events around the globe. The current virtual special issue brings together both new and classic papers to assist trauma specialists in their efforts to identify the factors that predict posttraumatic stress and recovery in the aftermath of mass shootings. The studies presented here involve participants exposed to a range of different events, from shootings on college campuses and sniper attacks on highways in the United States, to the mass gun attack on young persons on Utøya Island in Norway. The foci of these studies include individual sources of risk and resilience among those directly traumatized, such as anxiety sensitivity, life threat, physical injury, and guilt; as well as traumagenic and protective factors among those indirectly exposed, such as emotion regulation, identification with victims, and changes in cognition and emotion. Another important issue addressed by these articles is the impact of media exposure, both on those consuming and those producing those reports, research which confirms the importance of continuing to investigate and develop interventions for secondary traumatic stress, a source of PTSD that arises from trauma exposure that is indirect but nonetheless deeply impactful and real. Significantly, mass shootings, in which an assailant intentionally and maliciously perpetrates harm on a host of innocent victims, have the potential to impart moral injury and negatively impact the worldviews of an entire cohort of young persons, the radiating effects of which we may not yet have begun to realize. On the other side of the coin, a potential antidote to the corrosive effects of exposure to the horrors of mass shootings is the finding that participation in research itself is viewed by traumatized individuals as a way of paying forward to those who might be affected in future. Just as with the public outpourings of support and donations of goods, time, and blood we have seen in the aftermath of shootings and other disastrous events, there are many examples of altruism that can serve to preserve (or rekindle) faith in humankind.

Mass Shootings: A Meta-Analysis of the Dose-Response Relationship
Laura C. Wilson

Mental health consequences of the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre: A community study
Richard L. Hough, William Vega, Ramon Valle, Bohdan Kolody, Richard Griswald Del Castillo, and Henry Tarke

Identification With Terrorist Victims of the Washington, DC Sniper Attacks: Posttraumatic Stress and Depression
Holly B. Herberman Mash, Robert J. Ursano, K. Nikki Benevides, and Carol S. Fullerton

Prospective Trajectories of Posttraumatic Stress in College Women Following a Campus Mass Shooting
Holly K. Orcutt, George A. Bonanno, Susan M. Hannan, and Lynsey R. Miron

Anxiety sensitivity and posttrauma stress symptoms in female undergraduates following a campus shooting
Katherine L. Stephenson, David P. Valentiner, Mandy J. Kumpula, and Holly K. Orcut

Reactions to trauma research among women recently exposed to a campus shooting
Thomas A. Fergus, Mandy M. Rabenhorst, Holly K. Orcutt, and David P. Valentiner

Life Threat and Sleep Disturbances in Adolescents: A Two-Year Follow-Up of Survivors From the 2011 Utøya, Norway, Terror Attack
Janne Grønli, Annika Melinder, Olga Therese Ousdal, Ståle Pallesen, Tor Endestad, and Anne Marita Milde

Shame and Guilt in the Aftermath of Terror: The Utøya Island Study
Helene Flood Aakvaag, Siri Thoresen, Tore Wentzel-Larsen, Espen Røysamb, and Grete Dyb

Physical Injury and Somatic Complaints: The Mediating Role of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Young Survivors of a Terror Attack
Ingrid Bugge, Grete Dyb, Synne Øien Stensland, Øivind Ekeberg, Tore Wentzel-Larsen, and Trond H. Diseth

Posttraumatic Responses to the July 22, 2011 Oslo Terror Among Norwegian High School Students
Dag Ø. Nordanger, Mari Hysing, Maj-Britt Posserud, Astri Johansen Lundervold, Reidar Jakobsen, Miranda Olff, and Kjell Morten Stormark

Effects of media exposure on adolescents traumatized in a school shooting
Henna Haravuori, Laura Suomalainen, Noora Berg, Olli Kiviruusu, and Mauri Marttunen

Ethical Dilemmas, Work-Related Guilt, and Posttraumatic Stress Reactions of News Journalists Covering the Terror Attack in Norway in 2011
Klas Backholm and Trond Idås

Media Participation and Mental Health in Terrorist Attack Survivors
Siri Thoresen, Tine K. Jensen, and Grete Dyb

Resources

http://www.istss.org/treating-trauma/international-practice-guidelines-for-post-trauma.aspx
Guideline 1: Psychological Debriefing for Adults
Guideline 2: Acute Interventions for Children and Adolescents
http://www.istss.org/treating-trauma/self-care-for-providers.aspx
http://www.istss.org/treating-trauma/treatment-materials.aspx
http://www.nctsn.org/content/psychological-first-aid
“Managing your distress in the aftermath of a shooting”
“Helping children manage distress in the aftermath of a shooting”
“Gun Violence: Prediction, Prevention, and Policy”