Coping, media exposure and terror: Forgiveness, mastery, and emotional distress following exposure to intense traumatic events through the media.

Background: Video footage of terror attacks as distributed over social networks can cause significant emotional distress. Dealing with such stress requires attention to significant personal resources.

Subjects and methods: This study examined the relationship between forgiveness and mastery with PTSD symptoms and stress among 249 participants before (T1) and after watching a video clip of a series of terror attacks that were distributed over social networks (T2).

Results: The results demonstrated that higher levels of situational forgiveness and mastery at T1 were associated with lower levels of PTSD symptoms and stress at T1. Regarding T2, only PTSD symptoms at T1 were positively associated with both PTSD and stress at T2. Stress at T1 was only positively associated with stress at T2. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Conclusions: Among those exposed to traumatic social-media content, it is important to acknowledge previous PTSD symptoms and stress. In addition, attention should be given to gender, situational forgiveness and mastery when coping with the emotional distress following such exposure. Thus, awareness of different trajectories of the emotional distress is recommended allowing for theoretical, practical and clinical implications.