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<br />COPING SELF-EFFICACY FOLLOWING <br />NATURAL AND HUMAN-CAUSED DISASTERS <br /> <br />Charles C. Benight <br />University of Colorado at Colorado Springs <br /> <br />This paper discusses research on the role of coping self-efficacy in <br />post-disaster psychological and physical responses in five separate samples, <br />including natural and human-caused disasters. Research on the mental health <br />impact of disasters has rapidly proliferated in the last several decades and has <br />demonstrated that serious psychological ramifications occur following a <br />disaster (Adams and Adams, 1984; Rubonis and Bickman, 1991). The <br />primary aim of these research projects was to evaluate the predictive power <br />of subjective appraisals of coping self-efficacy (CSE) for psychological <br />distress in recovering from a major disaster. <br />CSE is defined as a person's subjective appraisal of his/her ability to cope <br />with the environmental demands of a stressful situation. For example, <br />following a natural disaster such as a hurricane, victims are faced with <br />significant emotional, financial, and often physical demands related to getting <br />life "back to normal." A person's self-appraisal of how capable he or she feels <br />to successfully manage these demands is an example of CSE for post-hur- <br /> <br />ricane recovery. <br />Enhanced levels <br /> <br />functioning in a <br />related to <br /> <br />of CSE have been related to better <br />number of ways. For example, higher levels of CSE have been <br />improved coping with physical assault (Ozer and Bandura, 1990), dealing <br />with the psychological effects of abortion (Meuller and Major, 1989), better <br />immune function (Wiedenfeld et aI., 1990), lower catecholamine reactivity <br />during stress (Bandura, Taylor, Williams, Mefford, and Barchas, 1985), and <br />reduced blood pressure response during a stressful task (Bandura, Reese, and <br />Adams, 1982). A few studies have also shown that the better a person's <br />appraisal of CSE, the better he or she recovers from extreme environmental <br />experiences. Murphy (1987) found this when studying victims of the Mt. <br />Saint Helens eruption, and it was also the case for Israeli soldiers who had <br />faced military combat (Solomon et aI., 1989). Thus. perceived coping <br />