Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on April 7, 2006
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2006 6(2):144-153; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhj016
|
PTSD Reactions and Coping Responses of American Airlines Flight Attendants Who Were Former Employees of Trans World Airlines: Further Support of a Psychological Contagion Effect
From the Department of Psychology, Loyola College in Maryland
Contact author: Jeffrey M. Lating, Department of Psychology, Loyola College in Maryland, 4501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210-2699. E-mail: jlating{at}loyola.edu.
Previous findings comparing the psychological reactions and functional coping of East Coast- and West Coast-based American Airlines (AA) flight attendants after the attacks on September 11 provide support for a psychological contagion phenomenon (Lating, Sherman, Lowry, Everly, & Peragine, 2004). The purpose of this investigation was to expand these results by creating an additional comparison group consisting of current AA flight attendants not working on either the East Coast or the West Coast and who were also previously working for Trans World Airlines (TWA) before AA took over operating authority in April 2001. As predicted, the results revealed that the rate of probable posttraumatic stress disorder for the former TWA flight attendants (15.1%) was not significantly different from the East Coast and the West Coast AA flight attendants. Moreover, there were no significant differences among the three groups on measures of life functioning, and as hypothesized, there was no difference between the West Coast-based flight crews and the former TWA flight attendants in whether they knew someone who lost his or her life in the aftermath of September 11. Health implications, including multicomponent treatment interventions, are suggested.
KEY WORDS: PTSD, flight attendants, terrorist attacks, psychological contagion, September 11
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
M. M. Matthieu and A. Ivanoff Using Stress, Appraisal, and Coping Theories in Clinical Practice: Assessments of Coping Strategies After Disasters Brief. Treat. Crisis Interven., November 1, 2006; 6(4): 337 - 348. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||