The objective of this study was to provide knowledge about the emotional reactions in parents whose offspring experienced a mass shooting on Utøya island in Norway in 2011. The research questions included whether parents' reactions were influenced by their offspring's symptom level, age, living situation and parental gender.
The study was designed as an open cohort study. The data were collected at two time points; 4-5?months and 14-15 months after the shooting.
The participants were 531 parents of youth exposed to the Utøya island attack.
The Parental Emotional Reaction Questionnaire measured parents' reactions, and University of California, Los Angeles Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index measured youths' post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Parental emotional reactions were positively related to post-traumatic stress reactions in offspring at wave 1: Est.=0.20, 95%?CI 0.10?to 0.30, p
