Why Family Communication Matters: the Role of Co-rumination and Topic Avoidance in Understanding Post-Disaster Mental Health.

Although families can be a source of support post-disaster, depending on how they communicate about their stress, their attempts at support can be helpful or harmful. This study explored the moderating role of topic avoidance and co-rumination on post-disaster mental health (MH) in a sample of 485 parent-child dyads following severe floods affecting Texas. Parents (69.

Measuring media exposure to acute mass violence.

Objective: Researchers have studied the influence of media exposure to acute mass violence (e.g., terror attack, mass shooting, etc.

Social and Contextual Influences on Mental Health Following an Episode of Mass Violence.

Few studies explore how the recovery context following an episode of mass violence affects posttragedy mental health (MH), despite clear implications for developing posttrauma supports. Following a mass murder, this prospective, longitudinal study examined how reactions to media coverage, family reactions, and disappointment in social support influenced posttragedy MH (posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety), above and beyond the influence of pretragedy MH, pretragedy victimization, and objective exposure. University students who participated in a study of college adjustment prior to the mass murder ( = 593) were recontacted and provided information on their posttragedy life ( = 142).