Abstract
A plethora of studies on terrorism underscores the challenges of managing the psychological and behavioural impacts of terrorist events. This literature also emphasizes the idea that the global pending threat of terrorism, prior to the occurrence of any event, may also give rise to significant reactions among members of the public. Drawing from the literature on proactive coping, the current study presents the results of factor analyses performed on sections of a national survey that assessed appraisals of as well as actual responses to the threat of terrorism in Canada (N = 1,502). Findings revealed that items assessing individual response to terrorism were represented by three factors in this context: Individual Preparedness, Information Seeking, and Avoidance Behaviour. Further analyses demonstrated a tendency for actual preparedness behaviours to be associated with decreased psychological stress, and actual avoidance behaviours to be associated with heightened psychological stress. Furthermore, the divergent patterns of relationships of terrorism response appraisals and corresponding actual responses with psychological stress emphasized the need to distinguish different stages in the process of preventive coping with terrorism. Theoretical and practical implications of findings for individual preparedness in Canada are discussed.
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Notes
In brief, results of these studies suggested that Canadians were not threatened by the possibility of an incident on Canadian soil and that few had changed their habits or behaviours because of the threat of terrorism (Gibson et al. 2007; Lee 2008). Nonetheless, a few participants reported avoiding certain activities, places, or people (for example, air travel, large cities or countries perceived as targets) to cope with their fear of experiencing an attack (Gibson et al. 2007; Lee 2008). A small proportion of respondents also reported taking measures to prepare for terrorism or using strategies to regulate their emotional responses to this threat (Gibson et al. 2007; Lee 2008). Although relatively infrequent, individual response to terrorism as a pending threat thus emerged as a multifaceted construct encompassing several dimensions, including efforts aimed at avoiding terrorist events, individual preparedness and planning, and emotion-focused behaviours (Lee 2008).
It was decided not to replace values of 0 = don’t know/no opinion because respondents actively selected these values, rendering them non-equivalent to missing values.
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This project received funding from the CBRNE Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI), the McLaughlin Research Chair on Psychosocial Aspects of Risk and Health, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Mélanie Clément, Wayne Corneil, Daniel Krewski, Michelle C. Turner, and Michael G. Tyshenko to the project.
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Lee, J.E.C., Gibson, S., Markon, MP.L. et al. A Preventive Coping Perspective of Individual Response to Terrorism in Canada. Curr Psychol 28, 69–84 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-009-9053-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-009-9053-2