Although research has confirmed that violent losses can exacerbate grief reactions, few investigations have explored underlying mechanisms. In this study, the authors used a dataset on bereaved spouses and bereaved parents at 4- and 18-months postloss to examine the mediating effects of self-worth and worldviews (benevolence and meaningfulness beliefs). Persons bereaved by violent causes had significantly more posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), grief, and depression symptoms at 4- and 18-months postloss than persons bereaved by natural causes.

We conducted a prospective study that tracked the frequency of potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and nontraumatic events among college students over a 4-year period using a weekly web-based survey. At the study's completion, participants attempted to recall the number of events they had endorsed on the web surveys. Although participants underrecalled the frequency of all types of life events, recollection was more accurate for PTEs than for non-PTEs. Recalled-frequency of PTEs was associated positively with distress at recall and inversely with trait self-enhancement.

Although traumatic events may be pathogenic to some, they may also be moderated by social and cultural factors such as community support and positively framed cultural reconceptualizations of the traumatic events. This article analyses how cultural-political narratives may frame individual traumatic experiences and channel them into collective causes among Tamil refugees in Norway. Data derives from participant observation within Tamil NGOs in Norway between September 2006 and February 2010.

Initial research on loss and potentially traumatic events (PTEs) has been dominated by either a psychopathological approach emphasizing individual dysfunction or an event approach emphasizing average differences between exposed and nonexposed groups. We consider the limitations of these approaches and review more recent research that has focused on the heterogeneity of outcomes following aversive events. Using both traditional analytic tools and sophisticated latent trajectory modeling, this research has identified a set of prototypical outcome patterns.