ABSTRACT
Community- and population-based studies have found that, during their lifetimes, a majority of people will be exposed to at least one event which involves actual or threatened death, serious injury, or a threat of physical injury to self or significant others (e.g., Breslau et al., 1998). Although such events involve a marked disruption in everyday routines, individuals have a wide range of psychological and physical reactions to such events. In fact, such events are labeled by researchers as “potentially traumatic” to emphasize that not everyone experiences these aversive events as traumatic (Bonanno, 2004). For the sake of brevity, we will refer to these experiences as “trauma” and “loss” throughout this chapter.
