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Fearing Future Terrorism: Development, Validation, and Psychometric Testing of the Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale (TCS)

Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, jsincl{at}post.harvard.edu

Alice LoCicero

Endicott College, Beverly, Massachusetts

The purpose of this study was to develop a new tool, the Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale (TCS), rooted in terror management theory (TMT) and cognitive-behavioral theory (CBT). Participants were adults sampled from the general U.S. population (N = 503) using internet-based methods. Psychometric analysis indicates a 13-item version of the TCS, measuring three constructs (Rumination, Magnification, and Helplessness), met all tests of scaling assumptions and generally fit a 3-factor model using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; CFI = 0.96; TLI = 0.98), where CFI is the comparative fit index and TLI is the Tucker-Lewis index. Results also indicate that self-esteem and social connected-ness are negatively associated (P < .0001) with terrorism catastrophizing, as TMT would assume. Finally, terrorism catastrophizing is a significant predictor (P < .0001) of behavioral change and of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and physiological stress, as CBT would maintain. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.

Key Words: terrorism • terrorism catastrophizing scale • TCS • anticipatory fear • terrorism threat • political violence

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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sinclair, S. J. Articles by LoCicero, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?