BackgroundScientific literature on posttraumatic growth (PTG) after terrorist attacks has primarily focused on persons who had not been directly exposed to terrorist attacks or persons who had been directly exposed to them, but who were assessed few months or years after the attacks.MethodsWe examined long-term PTG in 210 adults directly exposed to terrorist attacks in Spain a mean of 29.6 years after the attacks (range: 2–47 years). The participants had been injured by a terrorist attack (38.6%) or were first-degree relatives of people who had been killed or injured by a terrorist attack (41.4% and 20%, respectively). They completed diagnostic measures of emotional disorders and measures of PTSD and depression symptomatology, optimism, and PTG.ResultsMultiple regression analyses revealed gender differences (women reported higher levels of PTG than did men) and a positive linear relationship between PTG and cumulative trauma after the terrorist attack. Some PTG dimensions were significantly associated with PTSD symptomatology, these associations being linear, not curvilinear. However, PTG was not associated with depression symptomatology, diagnosis of emotional disorders, age, elapsed time since the attack, or optimism. In comparison with survivors assessed 18 years after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Spanish victims of terrorism showed higher levels of appreciation of life, but lower levels of relating to others and spiritual change.ConclusionThe findings underscore the influence of gender on PTG and provide support to the hypothesis that some emotional distress may be a necessary condition of PTG. Future studies on PTG after terrorist attacks should take into consideration the characteristics of the terrorist attack itself and the contexts of violence and threat in which it occurred. The political, social, and cultural characteristics of the community affected by it and the profile and characteristics of other traumatic events suffered after the attack should also be taken into account in further research.

People exposed to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) may develop distinct symptom patterns, which may require different therapeutic approaches. We aimed to identify classes of people exposed to PTEs based on presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clusters, anxiety, and depression and to explore which cognitive factors (rumination, worry and negative cognitions) are associated with class membership. Latent class analyses were conducted to identify subgroups of 258 PTE-exposed Spanish adults. A three-class solution emerged: a resilient class with low odds of all symptoms (n = 188), a partial PTSD class, characterized by partial PTSD clusters, moderate anxiety, and low depression (n = 36), and a high symptom class, characterized by high PTSD, moderate anxiety, and low depression (n = 34). These classes related meaningfully to rumination, worry, and negative cognitions. Distinct symptom patterns of PTSD clusters, anxiety, and depression can be distinguished in people exposed to PTEs and relate to cognitive risk-factors of psychopathology.

Se presenta una primera revisión sistemática de la investigación psicológica sobre la pandemia de la COVID-19 realizada en España. Dado que esta investigación se ha centrado en el impacto emocional de la pandemia, se presenta también una revisión sistemática de los estudios sobre la prevalencia de la depresión, la ansiedad, el estrés postraumático, el estrés y el malestar emocional durante la pandemia en la población general adulta española. Se realizó una búsqueda en PsycInfo que identificó 18 estudios en los que, en conjunto, se había evaluado a 57 681 personas. Los resultados permiten estimar que la prevalencia de la sintomatología moderada-grave en la población general adulta española durante la primera ola de la pandemia fue de 18.6% para la depresión, 12.7% para la ansiedad, 33.1% para el estrés postraumático, 21.5% para el estrés y 29.5% para el malestar emocional. Estos resultados se discuten en el contexto de las limitaciones de los estudios realizados durante la pandemia, ya que la inmensa mayoría se realizaron por internet y con muestreos no probabilísticos con el método de bola de nieve y, por tanto, son susceptibles a los sesgos derivados de la autoselección y de la exclusión de las personas sin acceso a internet.