Coping self-efficacy and psychological distress following the Oklahoma city bombing

Findings from a study of 27 victims of the Oklahoma City bombing are report ed. This research focused on the importance of subjective appraisals of cop ing self-efficacy in predicting psychological distress following this trage dy. Results supported the hypothesis that judgments of coping self-efficacy taken 2 months after the bombing added significantly to the explanation of general and trauma-related distress after controlling for income, social s upport, threat of death, and loss of resources. Coping self-efficacy judgme nts taken 1 year later were also important in explaining psychological dist ress after controlling for loss of resources and social-support perceptions . Although coping self-efficacy perceptions taken at 2 months were related to distress levels 1 year later, they did not remain significant in a regre ssion analysis controlling for loss of resources and income. Implications o f these findings for post-terrorist bombing interventions are discussed.