THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS, REPRESSIVE COPING AND RUMINATION AMONG CHILEAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Natural disasters have different impacts on people’s psychological well-being and mental health. One of the most frequent consequences is the post-traumatic symptomatology. The psychological impact of disasters might be infuenced by several factors. The coping style is one of the personal factors that infuence the psychological impact of disasters. Objective: The current research assessed the relationship between post-traumatic stress and two ways of coping, repressive style and rumination in a sample of 314 undergraduate students that lived the earthquake and tsunami in the central region of Chile and that answered self-informed tools. Results: An inverse relationship between repressive coping and post-traumatic stress was found, as well as direct relationship between rumination and post-traumatic stress. Repressive coping and rumination showed an inverse relationship. Conclusion: These results allow a better understanding of the relationship between coping responses and person’s propensity to answer negatively to traumatic experiences such as natural disasters. Repressive coping may not be a negative response and so could contribute to a decreased rumination, which is a factor that is associated to a greater post-traumatic symptomatology.