Media experiences and associations with mental health among the bereaved of the MH17-disaster: A latent profile analysis

Research has shown that the amount of media exposure is associated with post-event mental health problems. Whether bereaved individuals have negative experiences with media reports and whether they are associated with post-event mental health is unclear. This study evaluated these experiences and associations following the MH17-disaster. How media reports were experienced (nine topics, modified MAS), depression symptoms (QIDS-SR), functional problems (WSAS) and event-related coping self-efficacy (CSE) were assessed about one year post-disaster (May-August 2015) among Dutch bereaved (N = 152). A substantial minority reported negative experiences such as reports made me angry (30%) and made me sad (48%). Latent profile analysis with symptoms, problems and coping self-efficacy as indicators, identified four classes of post-disaster mental health: a Well-Functioning Class (1), 35.1%; a Mild-Problems Class (2), 30.4%; a Sub-Clinical Class (3), 27.0%; and a Clinical Class (4), 7.4%. Differences in symptoms, problems and coping self-efficacy levels between classes were large according to Cohen’s d’s. Multivariate logistic regression (MLR) showed that the Clinical Class (4) compared to the Well-Functioning Class (1), more often that felt that reports strongly ‘embarrassed me’, ‘made me feel sad’, ‘filled me with fear’ and ‘served as a magnifying glass’. Future research should assess opportunities and effects of limiting media consumption.