Researchers have long identified the ability of secondary stressors to have impacts on people's wellbeing and mental health that are similar to the direct effects of major incidents (e.g., emergencies, disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, and conflicts) experientially, and in respect of their prevalence and the strain on services. But there is a lack of clarity about the nature of secondary stressors that can hinder efforts to mitigate their effects. We develop a new theoretical approach in this article. We argue that most secondary stressors are a function of: 1. Social factors and people's life circumstances (that include the policies, practices, and social, organisational, and financial arrangements) that exist prior to and impact them during the major incident; and/or 2. Societal and organisational responses to an incident or emergency. We show that this conceptual framework makes sense of the evidence from different domains and represents a more coherent approach than do previous definitions. We present a worked example from our research on the psychosocial effects on healthcare staff of the COVID-19 pandemic that was declared by the World Health Organization in 2020. We argue that our social model enables a holistic approach to conceptualising and intervening to remedy many of the longer-term and widespread negative psychosocial effects of disasters, conflicts and infectious diseases.

长期以来，研究人员已经确定了次要压力源对人们福祉和心理健康的影响能力，这与重大事件（例如，紧急情况、灾难、传染病爆发和冲突）的直接影响相似，并且在它们的流行方面以及服务压力。但是，对可能阻碍减轻其影响的努力的次要压力源的性质尚不清楚。我们在本文中开发了一种新的理论方法。我们认为，大多数次要压力源是以下因素的函数： 1. 在重大事件发生之前存在并影响他们的社会因素和人们的生活环境（包括政策、实践以及社会、组织和财务安排）；和/或 2。社会和组织对事件或紧急情况的反应。我们表明，这个概念框架可以理解来自不同领域的证据，并且比以前的定义更一致。我们提供了一个工作示例，该示例来自我们对 2020 年世界卫生组织宣布的 COVID-19 大流行对医护人员的心理社会影响的研究。我们认为，我们的社会模型能够采用整体方法进行概念化和干预，以补救许多灾害、冲突和传染病的长期和广泛的负面社会心理影响。