Children’s mental health after disasters: The impact of the world trade center attack

Hoven, Christina W.; Duarte, Cristiane S.; Mandell, Donald J.

doi:10.1007/s11920-003-0026-0

Cited by 65 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in one study was two to three times as high in New York city school students as it was in closeby urban and suburban school students tested a year earlier (Hoven et al, 2003), though it is possible that Manhattan rates were higher before the bombings as well.…”

Section: Exposure To Distant Traumamentioning

confidence: 87%

Trauma, Proximity, and Developmental Psychopathology: The Effects of War and Terrorism on Children

Pine

Costello

Masten

2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

136

121

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This report summarizes recent literature relevant to the effects of terrorism on children's mental health. The paper addresses three aspects of this topic. In the first section of the paper, data are reviewed concerning the relationships among stress, trauma, and developmental psychopathology. A particular emphasis is placed on associations with indirect forms of trauma, given that terrorism involves high levels of indirect trauma. Second, the paper delineates a set of key principles to be considered when considering ways in which the effects of terrorism on children's mental health can be minimized. Third, data are reviewed from studies in developmental psychobiology. These data are designed to illustrate the mechanisms through which children exhibit unique effects in the wake of traumatic circumstances.

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Section: Exposure To Distant Traumamentioning

confidence: 87%

Trauma, Proximity, and Developmental Psychopathology: The Effects of War and Terrorism on Children

Pine

Costello

Masten

2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

136

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…A disaster or mass-casualty incident can have significant psychological effects on children, including anxiety, feelings of loss of control, depression, sleep disturbance, developmental regression, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. 36,37 Provision of appropriate counseling and referral is important in the return toward normalcy for some children after a disaster. In the present study, 75% of the superintendents surveyed reported that their plan included provision for either in-school counseling or referral of troubled students to local mental health professionals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass-Casualty Events at Schools: A National Preparedness Survey

et al. 2006

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OBJECTIVE. Recent school shootings and terrorist events have demonstrated the need for well-coordinated planning for school-based mass-casualty events. The objective of this study was to document the preparedness of public schools in the United States for the prevention of and the response to a mass-casualty event.METHODS. A survey was mailed to 3670 school superintendents of public school districts that were chosen at random from a list of school districts from the National Center for Education Statistics of the US Department of Education in January 2004. A second mailing was sent to nonresponders in May 2004. Descriptive statistics were used for survey variables, and the 2 test was used to compare urban versus rural preparedness.RESULTS. The response rate was 58.2% (2137 usable surveys returned). Most (86.3%) school superintendents reported having a response plan, but fewer (57.2%) have a plan for prevention. Most (95.6%) have an evacuation plan, but almost one third (30%) had never conducted a drill. Almost one quarter (22.1%) have no disaster plan provisions for children with special health care needs, and one quarter reported having no plans for postdisaster counseling. Almost half (42.8%) had never met with local ambulance officials to discuss emergency planning. Urban school districts were better prepared than rural districts on almost all measures in the survey.CONCLUSIONS. There are important deficiencies in school emergency/disaster planning. Rural districts are less well prepared than urban districts. Disaster/masscasualty preparedness of schools should be improved through coordination of school officials and local medical and emergency officials.www.pediatrics.org/cgi

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“…Not surprisingly, the prevalence rate for PTSD in children has varied considerably (Hoven et al, 2003). Consequently, it is difficult to estimate the rates of PTSD given widespread differences across studies in the assessment measures, ages of the youth assessed, timing of the postdisaster assessment, type and severity of the disaster, and sample selection procedures, among other issues .…”

Section: Ptsdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

Bonanno

Brewin

Kaniasty

et al. 2010

Psychol Sci Public Interest

980

443

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SummaryDisasters typically strike quickly and cause great harm. Unfortunately, because of the spontaneous and chaotic nature of disasters, the psychological consequences have proved exceedingly difficult to assess. Published reports have often overestimated a disaster's psychological cost to survivors, suggesting, for example, that many if not most survivors will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); at the same time, these reports have underestimated the scope of the disaster's broader impact in other domains. We argue that such ambiguities can be attributed to methodological limitations. When we focus on only the most scientifically sound research-studies that use prospective designs or include multivariate analyses of predictor and outcome measures-relatively clear conclusions about the psychological parameters of disasters emerge. We summarize the major aspects of these conclusions in five key points and close with a brief review of possible implications these points suggest for disaster intervention.1. Disasters cause serious psychological harm in a minority of exposed individuals. People exposed to disaster show myriad psychological problems, including PTSD, grief, depression, anxiety, stress-related health costs, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. However, severe levels of these problems are typically observed only in a relatively small minority of exposed individuals. In adults, the proportion rarely exceeds 30% of most samples, and in the vast majority of methodologically sound studies, the level is usually considerably lower. Among youth, elevated symptoms are common in the first few months following a high-impact disaster, but again, chronic symptom elevations rarely exceed 30% of the youth sampled.2. Disasters produce multiple patterns of outcome, including psychological resilience. In addition to chronic dysfunction, other patterns of disaster outcome are typically observed. Some survivors recover their psychological equilibrium within a period ranging from several months to 1 or 2 years. A sizeable proportion, often more than half of those exposed, experience only transient distress and maintain a stable trajectory of healthy functioning or resilience. Resilient outcomes have been evidenced across different methodologies, including recent studies that identified patterns of outcome using relatively sophisticated data analytic approaches, such as latent growth mixture modeling.3. Disaster outcome depends on a combination of risk and resilience factors. As is true for most highly aversive events, individual differences in disaster outcomes are informed by a number of unique risk and resilience factors, including variables related to the context in which the disaster occurs, variables related to proximal exposure during the disaster, and variables related to distal exposure in the disaster's aftermath. Multivariate studies indicate that there is no one single dominant predictor of disaster outcomes. Rather, as with traumatic life events more generally, most predictor variables exert small...

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Children’s mental health after disasters: The impact of the world trade center attack

Cited by 65 publications

References 53 publications

Trauma, Proximity, and Developmental Psychopathology: The Effects of War and Terrorism on Children

Trauma, Proximity, and Developmental Psychopathology: The Effects of War and Terrorism on Children

Mass-Casualty Events at Schools: A National Preparedness Survey

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

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