Personality and Psychiatric Disorders among Employees of New York City Workplaces Affected by the 9/11 Attacks on the World Trade Center

Abstract

Objective

Personality is associated with psychopathology after disasters, but its association with the portion of postdisaster psychopathology that is incident remains unclear. It is also unclear whether any particular attributes of personality are associated with resistance to the persistence or recurrence of preexisting psychopathology after disasters. This exploratory study of employees of workplaces affected by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City examined the specific relationships of personality variables (specifically, novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence) to incident postdisaster psychiatric disorders and resistance to the persistence/recurrence of preexisting psychiatric disorders after the disaster.

Methods

Approximately 3 years after the 9/11 attacks, 379 employees were recruited from 8 selected affected workplaces (3 in the World Trade Center towers, 5 at varied distances in the geographic area). Lifetime predisaster and postdisaster psychiatric disorders were assessed retrospectively with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV, disaster experience details were collected with the Disaster Supplement, and personality was assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory.

Results

Underdeveloped executive functioning (low self-directedness and/or low cooperativeness) was associated with incident postdisaster psychopathology, and components of resilience (low harm avoidance, high self-directedness, and high persistence) were associated with postdisaster resistance to persistence/recurrence of preexisting psychiatric illness.

Conclusions

Personality is related to both incident and persistent/recurrent portions of postdisaster psychopathology, not clearly distinguished in previous research. Personality variables related to executive functioning and resilience may aid in assessing risk and developing treatments to prevent disaster-related psychopathology.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The participants in this study did not agree to allow their data to be shared publicly, and thus supporting data are not available.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health [Grant MH68853], the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism and the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, the US Department of Homeland Security [Grant MIPT106-113-2000-020], and Metrocare Services.