@article{ref1,
title="Perceived threat of disaster, efficacy, and psychological distress among individuals with a physical disability: a longitudinal model",
journal="Disaster medicine and public health preparedness",
year="2023",
author="Reed, Ashley E. and Rohrbeck, Cynthia A. and Wirtz, Philip W. and Marceron, Jennifer E.",
volume="17",
number="",
pages="e559-e559",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: Individuals with physical disabilities experience distress when faced with the threat of human-made and natural disasters, yet little is known about how to reduce that distress. This study used Protection Motivation Theory to longitudinally test the relationships between psychological distress and disaster-related cognitive appraisals, including perceived threat, emergency preparedness self-efficacy, and response efficacy, in a sample of individuals with physical disabilities. <br><br>METHODS: A nationwide convenience sample of 106 adults completed 2 surveys approximately 5 years apart. Structural equation modeling was used to assess effects of perceived threat, self-efficacy, and response efficacy on psychological distress across the 2 waves. <br><br>RESULTS: Our results suggest that the associations of proximal perceived threat and self-efficacy with psychological distress remain stable across time, while the effect of response efficacy is variable and may be more context-specific. Importantly, individuals who reported an increase in self-efficacy over time also reported (on average) a decrease in psychological distress. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: In addition to broadening our understanding of factors related to psychological distress, these results have potentially important intervention implications; for example, to the extent that self-efficacy is a malleable construct, one way of reducing disaster-related psychological distress may be to increase an individual's self-efficacy.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1935-7893",
doi="10.1017/dmp.2023.214",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2023.214"
}