Symptoms of Chronic Stress Following a Natural Disaster and Discovery of a Human-Made Hazard

Abstract

Research on the acute and chronic effects of victimization by disaster has found that some patterns of response generalize across disasters of different origin and type. However, it is likely that variation in the nature of the victimizing event can affect long-term psychophysiological reactions. This study compared 23 flood victims with 27 people living near a leaking hazardous toxic waste dump and 27 control subjects. Self-report, behavioral, and physiological measures of stress were collected, all of which showed that 9 months after the announcement of the toxic hazard and the destructive flood, subjects living near the waste dump were more anxious, depressed, and alienated, less able to perform challenging tasks, and more aroused than were flood victims or control subjects. Residents of the landfill neighborhood also reported more feelings of helplessness than did any other subjects, and these feelings were significantly correlated with stress. Victimization associated with the toxic landfill appeared more likely to pose threats to victims' sense of control and to cause chronic emotional and psychophysiological problems than did the natural disaster.