Theory & Research

The content within the Recovery4Teens website is designed to empower adolescents through empirically supported methods based in Social Cognitive Theory. Research shows that a person’s beliefs about his/her ability to cope can affect the amount of distress that person experiences after a trauma. This website utilizes information and interactive components to promote awareness about trauma, build positive coping skills, and increase people’s sense of control over their own recovery.

Below is a list of related articles and books on the research and empirical evidence that support the content within this site.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The Exercise of control. New York, Freeman.

Benight, C. C., & Bandura, A. (2004). Social cognitive theory of posttraumatic recovery: The role of
perceived self-efficacy. Behavior Research and Therapy, 42, 1129-1148.

Benight, C. C., Cieslak, R., Molton, I. R., & Johnson, L. E. (2008). Self-evaluative appraisals of coping
capability and posttraumatic distress following motor vehicle accidents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 677-685.

Benight, C. C., & Harper, M. L. (2002). Coping self-efficacy perceptions as a mediator between acute stress
response and long-term distress following natural disasters. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15, 177-186.

Benight, C. C., Ruzek, J. I., & Waldrep, E. (2008). Internet interventions for traumatic stress: A review and
theoretically-based example. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 21, 513 – 520.

Benight, C. C., Swift, E., Sanger, J., Smith, A., & Zeppelin, D. (1999). Coping self-efficacy as a mediator of
distress following a natural disaster.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 2443-2464.

Cieslak, R., Benight, C. C., & Lehman, V. C. (2008). Coping self-efficacy mediates the effects of negative
cognitions on posttraumatic distress. Behavior Research and Therapy, 46, 788-798.

Luszczynska, A., Benight, C. C., & Cieslak, R. (2009). Self-efficacy and health-related outcomes of collective
trauma. European Psychologist, 14, 51-62.

For more sources, please see the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Trauma Health and Hazards
Center website: http://www.uccs.edu/~thhc/