The Relationship between Incidental Exposure to Global Crisis Content, Hopelessness, and Secondary Traumatic Stress

Abstract

The current research was to explore the connection between incidental exposure to content of global crisis, hopelessness, and secondary traumatic stress in young adults. The research design employed in the study was a correlational research design to examine how passive exposure to crisis-related information on social media has a significant impact on cognitive vulnerability and symptoms of trauma-related stress. A total of 191 participants were included in the study. The measure of Incidental Exposure to Global Crisis Content, Hopelessness Scale and the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS) (measures intrusion, avoidance, and arousal symptoms) were used to collect data.

The results showed that the accidental exposure to the global crisis material did not have significant relationships with hopelessness or total secondary traumatic stress. There was no significant correlation between incidental exposure and sub components of secondary traumatic stress. However, a statistically significant moderate positive correlation was found between hopelessness and secondary traumatic stress. Intrusion, avoidance and arousal symptoms were also associated with hopelessness with the strongest correlation with avoidance symptoms.

The findings indicate that exposure to crisis-related content might not be enough to create psychological distress. Rather, internal cognitive vulnerability, especially hopelessness, seems to be much more central to the determination of stress responses related to trauma. The results emphasize the significance of the mental processes to explain psychological responses to the crisis-related information in the modern digital landscape.