In the European multi‐centre study BeSeCu (Behaviour, Security, Culture), interviews were conducted in seven countries to explore survivors’ emotional, behavioural, and cognitive responses during disasters. Interviews, either in groups or one‐to‐one, were convened according to type of event: collapse of a building; earthquake; fire; flood; and terror attack. The content analysis of interviews resulted in a theoretical framework, describing the course of the events, behavioural responses, and the emotional and cognitive processing of survivors. While the environmental cues and the ability to recognise what was happening varied in different disasters, survivors’ responses tended to be more universal across events, and most often were adaptive and non‐selfish. Several peri‐traumatic factors related to current levels of post‐traumatic stress were identified, while memory quantity did not differ as a function of event type or post‐traumatic stress. Time since the event had a minor effect on recall. Based on the findings, several suggestions for emergency training are made.

BackgroundExamination of existing research on posttraumatic adjustment after disasters suggests that survivors’ posttraumatic stress levels might be better understood by investigating the influence of the characteristics of the event experienced on how people thought and felt, during the event as well as afterwards.ObjectiveTo compare survivors’ perceived post- and peritraumatic emotional and cognitive reactions across different types of disasters. Additionally, to investigate individual and event characteristics.DesignIn a European multi-centre study, 102 survivors of different disasters terror attack, flood, fire and collapse of a building were interviewed about their responses during the event. Survivors’ perceived posttraumatic stress levels were assessed with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). Peritraumatic emotional stress and risk perception were rated retrospectively. Influences of individual characteristics, such as socio-demographic data, and event characteristics, such as time and exposure factors, on post- and peritraumatic outcomes were analyzed.ResultsLevels of reported post- and peritraumatic outcomes differed significantly between types of disasters. Type of disaster was a significant predictor of all three outcome variables but the factors gender, education, time since event, injuries and fatalities were only significant for certain outcomes.ConclusionResults support the hypothesis that there are differences in perceived post- and peritraumatic emotional and cognitive reactions after experiencing different types of disasters. However, it should be noted that these findings were not only explained by the type of disaster itself but also by individual and event characteristics. As the study followed an explorative approach, further research paths are discussed to better understand the relationships between variables.

Individuals are facing traumatic situations like natural crises (like floods, earthquakes) and man-made disasters (terroristic attacks) incrementally. Traumatic events are related to psychological consequences for survivors (depression, posttraumatic stress disorder). The experience of a traumatic event can be disclosed through narratives, which can be linguistically analyzed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). In this study, cultural and temporal differences in narratives about different traumatic events in seven European countries are investigated. 132 survivors, who experienced a traumatic situation, reported their experiences in focus groups and interviews. The transcripts of narratives were analyzed with the LIWC2007 (Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales & Booth, 2007). Regarding the LIWC categories affective and cognitive processes, event characteristics as well as cultural and temporal differences were explored. Results show that traumatic situations are reported with a greater amount of negative emotion words. Cultural differences regarding the LIWC categories are found between the seven European countries. A temporal factor, considering days elapsed between an event and narrative, was investigated. Temporal differences in cognitive word use, but not for affective contents, were recognized. This study was able to show tendencies of cultural diversity in the expression of traumatic events in survivors of seven European countries as well as to explore a temporal factor, which is related to a retrospective way of narration.

Individuals are facing traumatic situations like natural crises (like floods, earthquakes) and man-made disasters (terroristic attacks) incrementally. Traumatic events are related to psychological consequences for survivors (depression, posttraumatic stress disorder).The experience of a traumatic event can be disclosed through narratives, which can be linguistically analyzed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). In this study, cultural and temporal differences in narratives about different traumatic events in seven European countries are investigated. 132 survivors, who experienced a traumatic situation, reported their experiences in focus groups and interviews. The transcripts of narratives were analyzed with the LIWC2007 (Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales & Booth, 2007). Regarding the LIWC categories affective and cognitive processes, event characteristics as well as cultural and temporal differences were explored. Results show that traumatic situations are reported with a greater amount of negative emotion words.Cultural differences regarding the LIWC categories are found between the seven European countries. A temporal factor, considering days elapsed between an event and narrative, was investigated. Temporal differences in cognitive word use, but not for affective contents, were recognized. This study was able to show tendencies of cultural diversity in the expression of traumatic events in survivors of seven European countries as well as to explore a temporal factor, which is related to a retrospective way of narration.