“Warriors”: Impact of a Powerful Television Drama on the Psychological Health of U.K. Bosnia Peacekeepers

Fernando, Asanga; Hull, Lisa; Greenberg, Neil; Fear, Nicola T.; Hotopf, Matthew; Wessely, Simon

doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2011.03.011

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In 2007, three longitudinal studies[1, 4, 6] assessed the impact of TV viewing on PTSD development, and only one study[1] succeeded in finding a significant result. A study[5] in 2011 among soldiers in the UK did not show any significant result between TV watching and PTSD symptoms. However, in 2012, a longitudinal study[2] of 141 US citizens who were indirectly exposed to both hurricanes Katrina and Gustav through TV viewing reported an increased level of PTSD symptoms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses’ Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis

et al. 2019

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IntroductionThe relation between TV viewing and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is controversial; prior work focused exclusively on whether TV viewing of disaster events constitutes a traumatic stressor that causes PTSD. This study evaluates a possible bidirectional relation between PTSD and TV viewing in community-dwelling women.MethodsData are from the PTSD subsample of the Nurses’ Health II study, an ongoing prospective study of women aged 24–42 years at enrollment and who have been followed biennially (N = 50,020). Trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms (including date of onset) were assessed via the Brief Trauma Questionnaire and the Short Screening Scale for DSM-IV PTSD. Average TV viewing was reported at 5 times over 18 years of follow-up. Linear mixed models assessed differences in TV viewing patterns by trauma/PTSD status. Among women with trauma/PTSD onset during follow-up (N = 14,374), linear spline mixed models assessed differences in TV viewing patterns before and after PTSD onset.ResultsWomen with high PTSD symptoms reported more TV viewing (hours/wk) compared to trauma-unexposed women at all follow-up assessments (β = 0.14, SE = 0.01, p < .001). Among the women who experienced trauma during follow-up, significant increases in TV viewing (hours/day) prior to onset of high PTSD symptom levels were evident (β = 0.15, SE = 0.02, p < .001).ConclusionsTV viewing following trauma exposure may be a marker of vulnerability for developing PTSD and also a consequence of having PTSD. High TV viewing levels may be linked with ineffective coping strategies or social isolation, which increase risk of developing PTSD.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses’ Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis

et al. 2019

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“…Empirical studies of this behavior are scarce. In one study, Fernando et al (2011) found that British veterans of Bosnia peacekeeping deployments were more likely to watch a television drama related to the deployment than other service members who had not deployed to Bosnia. Notably, those who chose to view the drama were more likely to have experienced posttraumatic stress reactions before they viewed the show.…”

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confidence: 99%

Self-Triggering? An Exploration of Individuals Who Seek Reminders of Trauma

Bellet

Jones

McNally

2020

Clinical Psychological Science

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Trauma survivors who self-trigger, or seek reminders of their traumatic events, have been noted in the clinical literature but have not yet been the subject of a systematic empirical inquiry. This article presents the results of two exploratory studies of self-triggering. In Study 1 ( N = 545), we estimated the behavior’s clinical relevance among trauma survivors. In Study 2 ( N = 360), we examined descriptive characteristics of self-triggering as well as potential motivations for the behavior. We found that self-triggering is uniquely associated with more severe symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Self-triggering takes place via a wide variety of methods and can become compulsive for many individuals. Reasons endorsed for self-triggering comprised several broad motives, but the desire to make meaning of one’s trauma was most predictive of self-triggering frequency. Limitations, clinical implications, and directions for further research are discussed.

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“…A small body of work has also examined this behavior empirically. U.K. military veterans of the Bosnian peacekeeping missions were more likely to watch a TV drama depicting combat from that conflict than were military veterans who had not served in Bosnia (Fernando et al, 2011). Similarly, individuals with a history of being violently victimized were more likely to watch a video of a graphic beheading made by the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria than those with no such history (Redmond et al, 2019).…”

Section: Self-triggering and Ptsd Symptomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-triggering: Does function determine pathogenesis?

McGhie¹,

Bellet²,

Mellen³

et al. 2023

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

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Objective: Research suggests six motives for exposing oneself to painful reminders of a trauma outside of a therapeutic context (self-triggering). These include provoking arousal, escaping emotional numbness, self-punishment, controlling symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), making meaning of one’s trauma, and generating an experience that matches one’s emotions. The goal of the current study is to examine if these motives subserve broader functions of self-triggering behavior that differentially relate to PTSD symptoms. Method: We conducted an exploratory factor analysis on the self-reported reasons for self-triggering collected from 360 adults who endorsed lifetime self-triggering. We then theorized higher-order factors and tested both their fit to the data with a confirmatory factor analysis and whether they moderated the relationship between self-triggering and PTSD symptoms. Results: We found that five factors best described the reasons for self-triggering. We theorized one higher-order factor (function) of “emotional modification” that encompasses sensation-seeking, antinumbing, self-punishment, and affect-matching. The “meaning-making” function consists of efforts to make meaning of one’s trauma. This structure fit the data well in a confirmatory factor analysis. Self-triggering frequency no longer predicted symptom severity when meaning-making was highly endorsed as a function of self-triggering. Emotional modification did not affect this relationship. Conclusions: Generalizability may be limited by the sample’s high symptom levels, limited demographic diversity, and high proportion of interpersonal trauma. These findings suggest that the degree to which individuals self-trigger to make meaning of trauma may affect how pathogenic the behavior is, underscoring the clinical importance of identifying the function of patients’ self-triggering.

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“Warriors”: Impact of a Powerful Television Drama on the Psychological Health of U.K. Bosnia Peacekeepers

Cited by 8 publications

References 33 publications

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses’ Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses’ Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis

Self-Triggering? An Exploration of Individuals Who Seek Reminders of Trauma

Self-triggering: Does function determine pathogenesis?

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