Earthquakes, attributions, and psychopathology: a study in a rural community

Background: Attributions of both cause and blame form part of the diagnostic criteria for PTSD in DSM-5. Most work on attributions and psychopathology has focused on survivors of interpersonal violence and the two types of attribution have not been investigated together in natural disaster contexts. Previous work has identified that attributions to God’s role may be associated with survivors’ mental health following disasters. We studied the relation between attributions to God and other actors/entities in a rural community with high levels of religiosity that had suffered extensive damage and loss of life due to a series of earthquakes. Methods: A sample of survivors (N = 127) was assessed for degree of earthquake exposure, resource loss, attributions of cause and blame for the earthquake damage, and psychopathology three months after a series of major earthquakes in Italy. Results: Nature and chance were associated with higher cause than blame attributions whereas the State, the municipality, building firms, and the mafia were associated with higher blame than cause attributions. Additionally, both cause and blame attributions towards God and chance were positively correlated with PTSD and psychological distress symptoms. These associations remained significant while controlling for degree of earthquake exposure, resource loss, gender, age, and education. Conclusion: The current study supports the role played by cognitions about the cause of traumatic events, as introduced into the PTSD diagnosis in DSM-5, and extends this to blame of other entities such as God and chance following disasters.