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 ds. 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.