A role for prospective longitudinal investigations in the study of traumatic stress and disasters.

Includes bibliographical references

Reprinted from Journal of applied social psychology; 1990; v. 20, no. 20; p. 1695-1703

Much of our knowledge concerning the short and long-term effects of traumatic stress and disasters has been developed through the study of victims and control subjects after the events have happened. There are a number of problems inherent in such a post hoc research strategy that make it difficult to isolate the specific contributions of the severe stressor itself to subsequent adjustment. Common problems include difficulty specifying baseline adjustment, necessary reliance on retrospective and sometimes monomethod data, difficulties in recruiting representative samples of victims, and convincing control groups. Many of these problems could be circumvented by the use of ongoing longitudinal and multimeasure studies of psychosocial development. This strategy would allow one to study the effects of severe and traumatic events as they happen to subjects during their participation in such studies. Systematic and multiple measures of baseline adjustment of victims and nonvictims as well as pre-planned assessment for postevent adjustment would be available. Problems involved in implementing such collaborative research ventures are reviewed and solutions are proposed