S u m m a r y

Järnefelt H (1999)

Appraisal, coping and posttraumatic symptoms

Psykologia 34(5-6):367-377. Helsinki ISSN 0355-1067.

 

This study examined how appraisal of traumatic experience, coping efforts and trauma-related issues, especially acuteness of trauma, are related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The participants were 103 tortured Palestinian male ex-political prisoners who had been imprisoned and released at different times. The results gave support for a transactional theory of trauma. Appraising trauma as loss experience and using both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping were related to more symptoms. Appraising trauma as controllable predicted less posttraumatic symptoms. Among trauma-related issues only the shortness of the time havingpassed since trauma predicted more posttraumatic symptoms. The effectiveness of appraisal and coping were dependent on the acuteness of the trauma. Appraising trauma as loss and emotion-focused coping were related to more symptoms in the short run. In the long run appraising trauma as loss was associated with fewer symptoms and emotion-focused coping no longer predicted the amount of symptoms. According to this study we cannot consider any appraisal or coping good or bad if we do not take into account the context in which they are used.

 

Key words:

Appraisal, coping, PTSD, torture and trauma.

 

Heli Järnefelt, M.A. (psych.), Department of Psychology, P.O.BOX 13, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Heli.Tirkkonen@helsinki.fi.