Mental models of attachment, social strain, and distress following a collective loss: A structural modeling analysis

Individuals who were exposed to the terrorist attacks of September 11th through the media but suffered no personal bereavement may have experienced a "collective loss. " College students (314 total, 219 females, 95 males) completed questionnaires between 20 and 42 days after the attacks. Structural equation modeling was used to examine theoretically derived hypotheses. As expected, individuals with negative self-views reported greater social strain and general distress, while those with more positive views of others reported lower social strain and general distress. Furthermore, in the early weeks after the attacks, social strain only partially mediated the relationship between mental models of attachment and general distress reactions. [18] --------------[19] MENTAL MODELS OF ATTACHMENT, SOCIAL STRAIN, AND DISTRESS FOLLOWING A COLLECTIVE LOSS: A STRUCTURAL MODELING ANALYSIS Significant distress reactions have been documented in response to different types of natural or man-made disasters (Rubonis and Bickman, 1991). Terrorist attacks, which are intentional and designed to disrupt a sense of safety in a targeted population, have a greater potential for psychological distress (Bollin, 1985; Jacobs & Kulkarni, 1999: Norris, 2001; Ofman, Mastria, & Steinberg, 1995). Although most Americans did not suffer a personal bereavement in the attacks, nor were in close physical proximity to the attacks, exposure to media accounts coupled with the threat of future terrorist attacks represented a significant stressor of historical importance. Individuals who experienced this event indirectly can be said to have experienced a collective loss. In contrast to a personal bereavement, collective loss is experienced when tragedy strikes a community:individuals mourn for the loss of those with whom they have no personal connection (Wayment, in press). Recent examples of collective loss include the public's reaction to the untimely deaths of the Columbia shuttle astronauts, the tragic death of Princess Diana, and the shootings at Columbine High School. Distress reactions to the September 11th terrorist attacks were common and affected a majority of Americans (Schuster et al., 2001; Schlenger et al., 2002; Silver et al., 2002). The types of affective reactions studied in response to stressful events are typically restricted to general measures of distress, such as depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints (Norris, 2001; Rubonis & Bickman, 1991). Our first goal was to examine whether attachment style was associated with general distress reactions among individuals who experienced September 11th as a "collective" loss. Attachment Style and Reactions to Loss Relatively stable over one's lifetime (Fraley, 2002), attachment styles are "internal working models" that guide perception and behavior (Bowlby, 1980). By crossing positive and negative views of the self and of others, a four-category model of attachment has been postulated (Bartholomew, 1990; Bowlby, 1973; Collins & Reed, 1990) (see Table 1). Secure individuals feel that they are worthy of love, find others to be reliable sources of support, are comfortable with closeness and depending on others, and having others depend on them. Three types of insecure attachment styles have been documented and described. Individuals with an anxiousambivalent attachment style want to get close to others but worry that they are not worthy. Adults with an avoidant attachment style are often aloof, emotionally distant, and skeptical, and see significant others as being unreliable, or desiring too much intimacy, and avoid seeking support from others. Finally, a third type of insecure attachment style that has received much less attention in the literature is disorganized/disoriented (or fearful avoidant). Individuals in this category have negative views of both the self and others. These individuals are said to desperately want close relationships but do not trust others. Table 1. Four-category Model of Attachment View of Others Self-View Positive Negative Positive Secure Dismissing Avoidant Negative Ambivalent Fearful Avoidant [19] --------------[20] As indicated in Table 1, there are two fundamental dimensions of mental models of attachment: self-views and views of others. For the purposes of the present study the term negative self-views will represent the continuum of positive self-views to negative self-views and the term negative views of others will represent the continuum of positive views of others to negative views of others. A growing number of studies examining the affective reactions of individuals coping with realworld stressors have demonstrated that mental models of attachment are associated with the type and course of affective reaction, with insecurely attached individuals (negative self views but positive views of others) associated with more distress (Bowlby, 1980; Fraley & Shaver, 1999; Shaver & Tancredy, 2001). In response to the Iraqi missile attacks on Israel during the first Gulf War, individuals who lived in the most dangerous area duing the missle attacks reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization (as measured on the Symptoms Checklist; SCL90, Derogatis, Rickels, and Rock, 1976) than those living in less dangerous areas. Furthermore, among those living in the most dangerous areas, anxious-ambivalent Israeli students reported higher depression and anxiety than avoidant and secure students (Mikulincer, Florian, & Weller, 1993). In a study of older adults who had experienced a bereavement in the previous 12-18 months, Wayment and Vierthaler (2002) found that individuals higher in negative self-views (e.g., anxious attachment) reported higher levels of SCL-90 depression while those with more positive self-views (e.g, secure attachment) reported lower levels of depression. Cozzarelli, Sumer, and Major (1998) examined the relationship between attachment style and SCL-90 distress among women who underwent a first-trimester abortion. These authors found that women with positive self-views reported less distress in response to abortion. Thus, the overall pattern of attachment style to distress reactions following bereavement or direct exposure to a traumatic event suggests that individuals with negative self-views are more likely to report greater levels of general distress as measured by the SCL-90. Conversely, individuals with more positive views of others are likely to report lower levels of general distress. A yet unexamined question is whether the association between mental models of attachment and general distress also exists for individuals who have experienced a collective loss rather than a personal loss. Mental Models of Attachment and Social Strain Although the attachment style distress link has not been clearly demonstrated in the context of collective loss, there is reason to believe that such a link exists because attachment style has been shown to be related to social strain. Social strain occurs when individuals who would like to share their feelings with members of their support network feel that they are unable to disclose or that their support network members are not interested in their disclosure. In times of collective distress individuals often express a desire to talk and think about the event . Pennebaker and Harber (1993) described the potential for a "pressure-cooker effect" which is the dilemma facing a community experiencing a trauma: everyone wants to talk, but after a time, nobody wants to listen. In two studies involving significant examples of collective loss (earthquake and war), Pennebaker and Harber (1993) found that higher rates of depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints were reported when individuals' thoughts about the stressful event occured with much greater frequency than their reported ability to talk about their feelings. Social strain was also associated with depression in a sample of mothers who had lost an infant to SIDS (Lepore, Silver, Wortman, & Wayment, 1996). In a study of utilizing the same sample of college students reported in this investigation, social strain was associated with more general distress as well as disaster-focused distress (Wayment, in press). However, a relatively unexplored question is whether social strain mediates the relationship between mental models of attachment and general distress. Cozzarelli et al. (1998) not only found that women with negative self-views reported the highest levels of social strain while women with more positive self-views reported the lowest but also that social strain mediated the relationship between negative self-views and distress. Thus, we also set out to examine whether social strain could explain any potential relationship between mental models of attachment and general distress following the September 11th terrorist attacks. [20] --------------[21] The purpose of our study was to examine the relationship between mental models of attachment and general distress following the September 11th terrorist attacks among individuals who were far removed from the attacks and knew no one personally who died in the attacks. We ventured several predictions. Higher scores on negative self-views best represent the anxious-ambivalent and fearful avoidant attachment styles while lower scores on this variable represent more positive self-views (e.g., secure and dismissing avoidant attachment styles). Higher scores on negative views of others represents both types of avoidant attachment styles while lower scores represent more positive views of others (e.g., secure attachment). Our hypotheses were grouped into three models. The first model, called a direct effects model, hypothesized that negative views of self and negative views of others would be positively associated with general distress. Next, we tested a mediational model with both negative self-views and negative views of others were hypothesized to be positively associated with social strain and, in turn, socia