ABSTRACT

This study applied the Threat Appraisal and Coping Theory to explore the mechanisms influencing a person to go missing. We examined the negative emotions and stressors – proximate stressors/stressful events, underlying life stressors, emotional states, and other dysfunctional behaviors – of adults who were reported as missing from 2014–2018. Our results indicate that missing persons experience significant underlying life stressors, stressful situations, and proximate stressors that can ‘trigger’ a missing episode. We also found that most missing adults are described as facing negative emotions, such as anger, and engaging in maladaptive behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use, that are related to these events. These findings, we suggest, highlight that affectual and individual-level mechanisms are influential factors contributing to why adults go missing. Lastly, it was revealed that missing adults are commonly reported as experiencing strains and stressors in their personal relationships, indicating that this phenomenon may be attenuated through social support as an adaptive coping resource. Through these results, we can begin to understand missingness as driven by a negative event, stressor, or emotion in which the person engages in the maladaptive coping behavior of ‘going missing’ as a way to escape the situation and achieve some level of emotional or cognitive distance.

摘要

本研究应用威胁评估和应对理论探索影响一个人失踪的机制。我们检查了 2014 年至 2018 年期间被报告失踪的成年人的负面情绪和压力源——接近的压力源/压力事件、潜在的生活压力源、情绪状态和其他功能失调的行为。我们的研究结果表明，失踪者经历了显着的潜在生活压力源、压力情境和可能“触发”失踪事件的邻近压力源。我们还发现，大多数失踪的成年人被描述为面临与这些事件相关的负面情绪，例如愤怒，并从事不适应的行为，例如吸毒和酗酒。我们建议，这些发现强调了情感和个人层面的机制是导致成年人失踪的影响因素。最后，据透露，据报道，失踪的成年人通常会在他们的人际关系中经历紧张和压力，这表明这种现象可能会通过社会支持作为一种适应性应对资源而得到缓解。通过这些结果，我们可以开始将失踪理解为由负面事件、压力源或情绪驱动，在这些负面事件、压力源或情绪中，人们从事“失踪”的适应不良应对行为，以此作为逃避这种情况并达到某种程度的情绪或情绪的一种方式。认知距离。