Running head: COPING IN YOUTH AFTER DISASTER Post-Traumatic Symptomatology in Adolescents following Wildfire: The Role of Coping Strategy and Efficacy by

Recent studies have suggested a causal link between fire disaster and PTSD related psychological distress. Not everyone, however, is equally affected by the stress of experiencing such an event, and the role of coping and coping efficacy as factors in this process has not been systematically examined. In the current study, a representative sample of 206 9th graders from a Central Florida High School who experienced severe wildfires were assessed 3and 10months after the fires, to determine the explanatory roles of exposure/loss, coping efficacy, and coping strategy on PTSD. Moreover, gender, ethnicity, and SES were included in testing for the moderating role of sociodemographics. Results indicated relationships among exposure/loss, coping efficacy, and coping strategy as they related to PTSD symptomatology at both 3 months and 10 months postfires. Furthermore, although demographics variables were not found to account for a significant portion of the variance in PTSD, there were some interesting unique contributions of ethnicity. Post-Traumatic Symptomatology in Adolescents following Wildfire: The Role of Coping Strategy and Efficacy Research has examined the psychopathological consequences of a variety of natural and technological disasters. Research in the last decade has begun to focus on the effects of such disasters on children and adolescents. The hallmark of disasters is that they immediately plunge the child and family into situations in which they are exposed to multiple acute and chronic stressors that may affect adjustment (Saylor , Belter, & Stokes, 1997). These experiences have been found to have traumatic effects on children (Pfefferbaum, 1997), who have been shown to exhibit the full range of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) reactions and associated features in response to such disasters (Wilson & Raphael, 1993). In fact, symptoms of PTSD have emerged as one of the most common types of psychological distress observed in children following a disaster (Vernberg, La Greca, Silverman, & Prinstein, 1996). Recent studies of children and adolescents who had experienced a residential, industrial, or wildfire have suggested a causal link between fire disaster and PTSD related psychological distress (Greenberg, 1994; Greenberg & Keane, 1997; Jones, Ribbe, & Cunningham, 1994; March, Amaya-Jackson, Terry, & Costanzo, 1997). While clinical levels of PTSD are not always reported, partial PTSD symptomatology is common and may be quite disabling (Green, Lindy, Grace, & Leonard, 1992; Nader, Pynoos, Fairbanks, & Frederick, 1990). However, not everyone is equally affected by the stress of experiencing such an event. Therefore, understanding various risk and protective factors has become an important research issue. While exposure and loss (i.e., Freedy, Resnick, & Kilpatrick, 1992; March et al., 1997; Vernberg et al., 1996) and to some extent, demographic characteristics (Shannon, Lonigan, Finch, & Taylor, 1991; Lonigan, Shannon, Finch, Daugherty, & Taylor, 1994) have emerged as primary factors in the prediction of posttraumatic symptomatology, the role of coping among youth exposed to disaster has been virtually ignored (Jones & Randall, 1994). Defined as “constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; p.141), coping has been documented as a important determinant for a variety of forms of distress and psychopathology (Compas, Orosan, & Grant, 1993). However, its impact on post-disaster functioning is seldom examined. A related concept, coping efficacy defined as one’s subjective appraisal of his/her ability to cope with the demands of a stressful or traumatic situation (Bandura, 1986) has recently been suggested as an important variable in predicting outcome following disaster. It is important to note that this construct is conceptually different from coping strategy. Coping strategy is a specific behavior, or decision making process engaged to actively deal with a problem , versus coping efficacy which refers to one’s subjective evaluation of their coping efforts’ effectiveness. Taken together, these two constructs may have important implications for determining what individuals are most likely to experience post-disaster distress (Green & Solomon, 1995