RESEARCH TO FOCUS ON SHARED TRAUMA

“One goal of the study is to give people a place to tell their stories and process what has happened,” he said.

Aside from recording their stories, the study features questions on whether participants are feeling any post-traumatic stress or depression symptoms; a description of their personality traits; and measures of psychological well-being.

Participants are required to be at least 18 years old and either to have been at the festival or be a member of the Las Vegas community who learned about what happened within 24 hours of the event.

“I’m proud to see our faculty members applying their research in the immediate service of our community in the wake of this tragic event,” said Diane Chase, UNLV executive vice president and provost.

The study features follow-ups one month, three months, six months and one year after the initial questionnaire. The study will examine how the responses vary from those at the concert, those who were first responders and those who weren’t there but learned about it after the fact.

“The hope is that we can sim- ply characterize the narratives of people’s experience in various ways, depending on what the outcome is from the stories,” Benning said. “We would be interested in looking at how those stories differed from each other and how they a similar. Because this is really a shared trauma for everyone on the Las Vegas Valley.”

Those interested in participating in the study can learn more here and must sign up by Tuesday. mick.akers@lasvegassun.com / 702-948-7813 / @mickakers