Psychological distress in the aftermath of the 2020 Petrinja earthquake, Croatia

The Psychological Typhoon Eye (PTE) effect refers to the observation that those living in the epicenters of natural disasters or public emergencies exhibit lower levels of psychological distress than those living further away. The effect was first described in the context of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (Li et al., 2009). However, despite its potential relevance for emergency relieve, this phenomenon has received little research attention and requires further replication. To this end, data was collected in the aftermath of the earthquake that occurred in December 2020 in Petrinja, Croatia. With a magnitude of 6.4 on the scale of Richter, this was one of the gravest natural disasters occurring in Croatia in recent history. The goals of this study were: to conceptually replicate the PTE effect using the original measures utilized by Li et al. (2009), to replicate the effect using the validated Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), to explore possible the mediating role of general and earthquake specific coping in the PTE effect The sample consisted of 316 participants living in Croatia at the time of the earthquake, who were grouped into four categories based on their experienced levels of devastation.