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Recovery Following Hurricane Rita: A Pilot Study of Preexisting and Modifiable Aspects of Positive Change

Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Jennifer L. Callahan

Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, jennifercallahan{at}unt.edu, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Facets of personality from the Big 5 model, familial coping mechanisms, and interpersonal support were selected to predict perceived benefits and subjective well-being with 43 participants from varied ages, income levels, and ethnicities who experienced a natural disaster. Results indicate positive changes were predicted by distinct variables (mental healthiness was predicted by high agreeableness, passive appraisal, and reframing, accounting for 43% of the variance, whereas perception of benefits was predicted by high conscientiousness and seeking social support, which accounted for 50% of the variance). Thus, it appears that long-standing, pretraumatic individual and familial differences predict these posttraumatic outcomes.

Key Words: trauma • posttraumatic stress • disaster

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