Assessment of Children’s and Parents’ Stress Response to Reports about an Act of Terrorism

Introduction. Stability and welfare of the society are determined by the psychological state connected with its participants’ possibility to feel safe. From December 2021 to January 2022 the need for security was frustrated among citizens of many cities in Russia due to false reporting of terrorist acts against objects of the social infrastructure — educational institutions. The aim of the study is to assess the stress response of children and parents after false reporting of acts of terrorism in schools using the example of Tyumen. Materials and Methods. The research included a survey and questioning of parents of children who were studying in schools and involved in evacuation from December 2021 to January 2022. At the end of January 2022, the data was obtained from 37 parents regarding their children through an anonymous survey in Google forms (52 children in the whole sample). To assess the psychological state of the parents, a psychosemantic approach was used. Data collection was carried out through the method of free associations for the stimulus "information about evacuation in schools". A semantic field of 289 words was obtained. These associations were classified into semantic groups. To assess the psychological state of children, the N. V. Tarabrina’s parental questionnaire was used to assess the traumatic experiences of children. Results and Discussion. Six enlarged semantic categories associated with the psychological reaction to reports of evacuations in the city's schools have been identified. These semantic categories describe the image of a threatening situation, the emotional and informational assessment of the situation, the physical reaction to the situation, the degree of predictability of arising of such a situation, coping strategies. Some symptoms of traumatic stress have been found in the children: symptoms of intrusion and physiological excitability. Conclusions. Children and parents react to information on evacuation from schools in the logics of unfolding acute stress on a traumatic situation; show predominantly symptoms of intrusion and physiological excitability. Parents show an emotional reaction in a hyposthenic form, but at the same time they actively use constructive coping strategies.