O'DOCHARTAIGH ASSOCIATES

ANNOTATED DISASTER MENTAL HEALTH REFERENCES

Children And Families



   Bryant, Elizabeth Smithdeal.  Correlates of coping strategies and subsequent life events 
   among adolescents exposed to natural disaster. Dissertation Abstracts International; 
   1993 Oct Vol 54(4-B) 2188.



   Garrison, Carol Z.; Bryant, Elizabeth S.; Addy, Cheryl L.; Spurrier, Pamela G.; et al
   Posttraumatic stress disorder in adolescents after Hurricane Andrew.
   Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; 1995 Sep
   Vol 34(9) 1193-1201.

   Examined the rates and correlates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 
   in adolescents after Hurricane Andrew. Data were collected via 40-minute telephone
   interviews on 158 Hispanics, 116 Blacks and 104 white adolescents (12-17 yrs old),
   6 months after the hurricane. Interviews were focused on within-disaster
   experiences and emotional reactions, disaster-related loss, lifetime exposure
   to traumatic events, recent stressful experience, and psychiatric symptomatology.
   Results indicate that 7.3% of the Ss had PTSD symptoms. 3% of the males and 9%
   of the females met the criteria for PTSD. Rates of PTSD were highest among the
   Blacks and Hispanics, and increased with age and the number of undesirable
   incidents reported. It was concluded that stressful events occurring after 
   disasters were more strongly associated with PTSD than was the magnitude of
   contact with the actual disaster.

 

   Kane, Mark Stanton  Children of Chernobyl: A psycho-social empowerment project. 
   Dissertation Abstracts International Section A - The Humanities and Social Sciences; 
   1994 Vol 54(9-A) 3329.



   Klingman, Avigdor.  Children's response to the Gulf War: Assessment via
   ordinal and nominal quantification of compositions. School Psychology International;
   1994 Aug Vol 15(3) 235-246.

   Investigated the impact of cumulative trauma on 253 Israeli 5th and 6th grade
   children at risk from missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
   During the 5th week of the war, the Ss were asked to write in their classrooms
   a short composition about their personal experience since the beginning of the 
   war. A random sample of 80 compositions was coded by school counselors. The
   major concern of the study was the feasibility of employing a school-based, 
   easy-to-administer, assessment tool (i.e., a composition) as both research
   and clinically oriented assessment procedure. The most noted experiences 
   reported were Ss' active behavior in the sealed room, the role the mass media
   played, and the war as a source of stress and anxiety, respectively. More fears
   were expressed by boys than girls. The Ss' compositions may have considerable
   practical value for group-based assessment in community disaster situations.

 

   Swenson, Cynthia Cupit; Saylor, Conway F.; Powell, M. Paige; Stokes, Sherri J.; et al
   Impact of a natural disaster on preschool children: Adjustment 14
   months after a hurricane. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry;
   1996 Jan Vol 66(1) 122-130.

   Examined the duration of emotional and behavioral problems among
   children (aged 2-6 yrs) 14 months after they had experienced hurricane Hugo
   and assessed factors that predicted longevity of these problems. Mothers of
   Ss who had experienced the storm provided information on their children's
   behavioral problems, trauma symptoms, effects of the hurricane, life stressors,
   and duration of symptoms; this information was compared with information 
   provided by mothers of control children (aged 2-10 yrs) who had not experienced 
   the storm. Ss who had experienced the storm showed significantly higher anxiety
   and withdrawal and more behavior problems than did children who had not.
   Behavioral problems decreased steadily over the 6 months following the storm.
   Mothers' distress in the hurricane's aftermath was associated with longevity
   of their children's emotional and behavioral difficulties.