Maria Livanou

Prior research indicates that jury duty can be distressing for some jurors. This study examined: (1) the influence of prior trauma characteristics (type, exposure, time since trauma), medical fear and mental health difficulties on stress and emotional responses during a mock trial and 1 week later; and (2) associations between early stress reactions during a trial on subsequent stress and emotional reactivity after exposure to skeletal evidence and 1 week later.
Mock jurors (n = 180) completed baseline self-report mental health measures, read a summary of a murder case and were then exposed to graphic skeletal evidence. Stress and/or emotional responses were collected at baseline, after reading the case summary, before and after viewing the skeletal evidence and 7 days post-trial.
Participants reported a wide range of prior traumatic experiences, with nearly half reporting pre-existing mental health difficulties. Average traumatic stress symptoms tripled from baseline to follow-up, with 44% of participants meeting PTSD-type criteria 7 days later. Medical fear and mental health difficulties were positively associated with some stress and/or emotional responses throughout the trial, with mixed findings concerning trauma characteristics, stress and emotional reactivity. Initial stress and emotional responses to case evidence were linked to later stress and emotional reactions, after accounting for pre-existing trauma and mental health characteristics.
Past trauma experiences, mental health difficulties and immediate stress responses during a trial can exacerbate emotional and stress reactions. Addressing the psychological impacts of pre-existing trauma symptoms could improve juror well-being during this important civic duty.

Collective violence—such as armed conflict, state-sponsored violence, and terrorism—represents a profound form of trauma, which can harm individuals, communities, and societies. Existing research has largely examined risk factors and negative psychosocial outcomes from collective violence, neglecting the potential for survivors to draw upon a range of strengths that may allow them to perceive benefits from their experiences, known as posttraumatic growth (PTG). This scoping review uses the resilience portfolio model to highlight a potential portfolio of meaning-making, regulatory, and interpersonal-ecological strength-based resources and assets that are conducive to perceived PTG (PPTG) and possible better functioning following collective violence. The present review identified 52 papers from CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycArticles, and PsychInfo, spanning from January 1995 to May 2023, which specifically focused on strengths and PTG in populations who reside (or had resided) in over 20 countries. This review highlights individual- and group-level meaning making, regulatory, and interpersonal strengths used by survivors in both individualistic and collectivist societies, providing a more comprehensive understanding of resilience and PPTG after collective violence. Some strengths, such as religious coping, positive reappraisal, and social support, demonstrated mixed relations with PPTG. The research also identified previously uncategorized ecological/systemic supports for PPTG such as political climate, access to education, and sanitation infrastructure, which require more research. The findings call for culturally sensitive approaches that recognize and promote individual and community efforts to enhance well-being among populations disproportionately affected by collective violence.

Listening to people talk about their trauma experiences involves indirect exposure to trauma (IET) and can trigger emotional distress. Existing studies about the risk factors for post-IET distress have methodological limitations and reported inconsistent results, making their findings difficult to meaningfully synthesise. Also, most of them did not focus explicitly on trauma narratives and did not explore qualitatively the opinions and experiences of professionals who work closely with trauma survivors. The present study involved 36 professionals who worked with trauma survivors and used a qualitative design to investigate: (a) the perceived impact of the survivors' accounts, (b) the factors they deemed as important to be psychologically prepared for trauma accounts, and (c) their strategies for coping with IET. The semi-structured interviews conducted yielded rich data that was analysed thematically and organised in 13 subordinate themes, and 4 master themes. Listening to trauma narratives was thought to lead to emotional distress when it challenges the listener's ‘basic assumptions’ of safety and justice, when the listener has reduced sense of control and operates outside their ‘window of tolerance’, when empathic responses are too strong, and psychological preparedness for trauma-narratives is perceived as insufficient. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are discussed.