Children and Natural Disasters

Abstract

Worldwide children are impacted by natural disasters, including hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, landslides and sandstorms, winter and severe storms, heat waves, volcanoes and tsunamis. School psychologists should understand natural disaster effects, such as economic loss, relocation and health concerns and mental health issues. While most children are able to cope, a significant minority develops severe symptoms and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). School psychologists should gain trauma mental health training through the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the International School Psychology Association. They can also be involved in school and community prevention, mitigation and educational programming. This article presents an overview for school psychologists of the literature on children in natural disasters.

Mental Health Among Adolescents Exposed to a Tornado: The Influence of Social Support and Its Interactions With Sociodemographic Characteristics and Disaster Exposure

“…Beyond their immediate threat, tornadoes may result in other potentially traumatic stressors, including injury to, or loss of, loved ones, and forced relocation (Furr, Comer, Edmunds, & Kendall, 2010). Responses to natural disasters are affected by the ability to predict and prepare for them, ranging from days for hurricanes to minutes for tornadoes (Evans & Oehler-Stinnett, 2006a). Of note, the quick and unpredictable movement of tornadoes further effects preparedness and the implementation of safety measures (Miller et al, 2012).…”

Resilience in children in the aftermath of disasters: A systematic review and a new perspective on individual, interpersonal, group, and intergroup level factors

“…An individual predictor considered by the majority of studies (57%) is the level of exposure to the disaster, including objective and/or subjective elements of the child's disaster experience (W. Tang, Xu, Li, Lu, & Xu, 2018). Regarding objective elements, only a few studies (9% of all the studies considered) found that proximity to the disaster was associated with distress (Catani et al, 2010; Feo et al, 2014), while others have found a limited effect for this variable (Evans & Oehler‐Stinnett, 2006). Furr et al (2010) found a small to medium effect of disaster exposure on PTS in children and youth, with greater effects observed for disasters characterized by a greater loss of life, perceived threat, and loss of a loved one (Usami et al, 2019).…”

Educators as high-performance individuals and teams during a crisis

“…At least 1.6 billion learners and 97% of the students globally were impacted (3). Educators and teachers are often front-line responders with children and families in a crisis (4). Teachers support and interact with children and their families.…”