Dispositional Optimism and Disaster Resilience: A natural experiment from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Dispositional optimism - the general belief that good things will happen - is considered a key asset for the preservation of mental health after a traumatic life event. However, it has been hypothesized that in extreme situations such as major disasters where positive expectations cannot overcome the grim reality on the ground, being optimistic might be a disadvantage. To test this mismatch hypothesis, this study explores whether higher pre-disaster dispositional optimism is associated with higher posttraumatic stress (PTS) and depressive symptoms among individuals who experienced the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Methods

Information on optimism was collected from community-dwelling residents aged ≥65 years seven months before the 2011 Earthquake/Ts

SUBMITTER: Gero K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8005486 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature