You are invited to participate in this research study being undertaken as part of my Masters of Psychology at the University of Ballarat. This project is being supervised by Dr. Siobhan McEwan, School of Behavioural and Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Ballarat, Mt Helen Campus. This study will investigate factors that may influence an individual’s ability to cope with everyday events, such as death of a close relative or accidents, which can be traumatic and stressful. The information collected will inform psychological practice and assist in the development of new and more effective intervention strategies for individuals who have experienced trauma. The survey requests information about your personal details (e.g., age), traumatic events that may have happened to you, coping strategies you may have use d and possible reactions to traumatic experiences. We are investigating the types and frequency of events that occur, the coping strategies individuals use and the outcome these events have on mental health and wellbeing. As well as making a significance contribution to our theoretical understanding of an individual’s ability to cope with traumatic events, we aim to identify factors that could be used to improve interventions in helping people deal with traumatic events.

Participation will require you to complete a questionnaire package which will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Please complete the questionnaire as soon as possible (within 7 days). In order to maintain your anonymity please do not include any identifying details on the questionnaire. Information from the questionnaire is stored only by code number and is collated to form a larger database which will only be used to report group data. Participation is voluntary and you may withdraw from participating in the study at any time during data collection. However, after you have completed the questionnaire and submitted it, it will be impossible to identify your data from that of other participants; therefore withdrawal after this time is not possible. It is not anticipated that answering the questionnaire will elicit any mental distress. However, if you have experienced a trauma and have symptoms Dr. Siobhan McEwan, who is a Clinical Psychologist and has worked with people who suffered trauma, can be contacted for crisis psychological support and referrals if required on 0418442131. Alternatively you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14

This study has approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee and the results of the study will be available in December 2008 from the School of Behavioural and Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ballarat on (03) 5327-9610. Thank you very much for your participation in this study, I greatly appreciate your involvement.