Communal bereavement and resilience in the aftermath of a terrorist event: Evidence from a natural experiment

Abstract

Rationale Sociological analyses of the psychological distress experienced by persons indirectly exposed to traumatic stressors have been conceptualized as a form of communal bereavement, defined by Catalano and Hartig (2001) as the experience of distress among persons not attached to the deceased. Their theory predicts communal bereavement responses particularly in the setting of loss of essential state, religious, or economic institutions. Objective To estimate the extent to which the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. World Trade Center had a causal effect on psychological distress nationwide. Methods We used a difference-in-differences framework applied to repeated cross-sectional data from more than 300,000 participants in the 2000 and 2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys. Psychological distress was measured using three questions eliciting days of poor mental health-related quality of life. The September 11 attacks served as our exposure of interest. Results The September 11 attacks had a statistically significant, adverse, causal effect on psychological distress nationally. Both the magnitude and statistical significance of the estimated effects were larger in the New York City region compared to the rest of the country. Our estimates were robust to probes of the parallel trends assumption and potential sources of selection bias, as well as to falsification tests. However, these effects had largely resolved within four weeks. Conclusions Contrary to findings from the medical and public health literature, we conclude that the September 11 attacks did not have lasting effects on communal bereavement.

COVID-19, lockdowns and well-being: Evidence from Google Trends

“…The loneliness and worry coefficients are over one half of a standard deviation in Europe, but lower in the US. These can be compared to the estimated standarddeviation effect of 9/11 on mental health of 0.1 to 0.3 (Tsai and Venkataramani (2015)) and depression of 0.5 (Knudsen et al (2005)) in the US, and an effect on psychological well-being in the UK of 0.07 (Metcalfe et al (2011)). The Boston Bombing had an estimated effect on happiness and net affect of one-third of a standard deviation (Clark et al (Forthcoming)).…”

The Terrorist Attacks and the Human Live Birth Sex Ratio: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Therefore the following four sensitivity analyses were done (New York, California, California & New York, and the entire US) to determine if the overall pooled OR would change. Research has shown that the 9/11 attacks caused transient psychological distress in the whole of the US, but this distress was greatest in the New York City area (16). Informed by this fact, we chose New York for the final sensitivity analysis so as to capture the presumed maximum effect of the attacks.…”

“…Therefore, although we used different statistical techniques, our findings are in agreement with the primary studies. Furthermore, a recent study (16) revealed that population level psychological distress following the 9/11 attacks lasted for about one month and then resolved. A similar pattern was observed with the sex ratio at birth after 9/11 albeit with the expected lag, from the time of miscarriage/stillbirth to when live birth would have occurred.…”

Going Through Hell: Increased Work Effort in the Aftermath of Terrorism in Norway*

“…Three recent contributions that are methodologically and topically related to my study are Tsai and Venkataramani (2015), Kim and Kim (2018), and Clark et al . (2020), who all also use a residency‐based measure of terrorism exposure and a differences‐in‐differences approach.…”