Publication Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Clay, Shondra Loggins

Second Advisor

Salimi, Nahal

Degree Name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Legacy Department

School of Interdisciplinary Health Professions

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine factors that contribute to the development of psychosocial distress following unintentional physical injury. While existing research has explored psychosocial distress and protective factors in intentional trauma—such as assault or self-inflicted injury—unintentional injury remains comparatively understudied. Guided by the hypothesis that higher pre-existing resilience protects individuals from developing psychosocial distress after an adverse event, this dissertation employs a three manuscript design. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the dissertation, while each manuscript contains its own introduction, literature review, methods, results, and discussion. Chapter 2 presents Manuscript 1, which analyzes the incidence of pre-existing mental health diagnoses using data from the National Trauma Data Bank across unintentional, assault-related, and self-inflicted injuries. Findings indicate that individuals with unintentional injuries exhibit higher rates of pre-existing serious mental illness than expected based on population estimates, suggesting that underlying mental health conditions may serve as a mediating factor in unintentional injury. Chapter 3 contains Manuscript 2, a prospective cohort study assessing resilience and psychosocial distress within one month of injury and again at three months. Although the study was underpowered to determine whether baseline resilience predicts psychosocial distress at follow-up, a concurrent relationship between resilience and distress was observed at both time points. Chapter 4 presents Manuscript 3, a qualitative study using the same participant cohort as Manuscript 2 to explore the lived experiences of individuals recovering from unintentional injury. Participants described key influences on their post-injury outcomes, reflected in themes such as “Disruption of Self and Daily Life,” “Reliance on Support Systems,” and “Coping Strategies.” Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation by discussing practice implications, emphasizing the value of assessing resilience and identifying pre-existing psychosocial distress to better recognize individuals at heightened risk for adverse psychosocial outcomes following unintentional injury.

Extent

131 pages

Language

en

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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