Post Traumatic Stress, Context, and the Lingering Effects of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster among Ethnic Minority Youth

Weems, Carl F.; Taylor, Leslie K.; Cannon, Melinda F.; Marino, Reshelle; Romano, Dawn; Scott, Brandon G.; Perry, Andre M.; Triplett, Vera

doi:10.1007/s10802-009-9352-y

Cited by 148 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Most previous studies have shown that psychological morbidity decreases over time following natural disasters (Eksi & Braun, 2009; Fan et al, 2015; Piyasil et al, 2011), as also shown in our previous study on adults from the same data collection (Hlodversdottir et al, 2016), while other studies do not show significant changes over time (Jia et al, 2013; Thienkrua et al, 2006; Weems et al, 2010) or they show an increase in symptoms (Shaw et al, 1996; Ye et al, 2014). One reason for our findings might be that proper surveillance and psychological support was not implemented immediately for children after the eruption, indicating that children are a particularly vulnerable group that need developmentally appropriate interventions beyond the needs of adults.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Usually, psychological symptoms peak during the first year post-disaster (Eksi & Braun, 2009; Fan, Long, Zhou, Zheng, & Liu, 2015; Piyasil et al, 2011), but some studies indicate that symptoms do not significantly decrease over time (Jia et al, 2013; Thienkrua et al, 2006; Weems et al, 2010). Long-term studies have even found an increase in psychological symptoms years after the disaster (Shaw, Applegate, & Schorr, 1996; Ye, Fan, Li, & Han, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term health of children following the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption: a prospective cohort study

Hlodversdóttir

Thorsteinsdottir

Þórðardóttir

et al. 2018

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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Background: More than 500 million people worldwide live within exposure range of an active volcano and children are a vulnerable subgroup of such exposed populations. However, studies on the effects of volcanic eruptions on children’s health beyond the first year are sparse. Objective: To examine the effect of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption on physical and mental health symptoms among exposed children in 2010 and 2013 and to identify potential predictive factors for symptoms. Method: In a population-based prospective cohort study, data was collected on the adult population (N = 1615) exposed to the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption and a non-exposed group (N = 697). The exposed group was further divided according to exposure level. All participants answered questionnaires assessing their children´s and their own perceived health status in 2010 and 2013. Results: In 2010, exposed children were more likely than non-exposed children to experience respiratory symptoms (medium exposed OR 1.47; 95% CI 1.07–2.03; high exposed OR 1.52; 95% CI 1.03–2.24) and anxiety/worries (medium exposed OR 2.39; 95% CI 1.67–3.45; high exposed OR 2.77; 95% CI 1.81–4.27). Both genders had an increased risk of symptoms of anxiety/worries but only exposed boys were at increased risk of experiencing headaches and sleep disturbances compared to non-exposed boys. Within the exposed group, children whose homes were damaged were at increased risk of experiencing anxiety/worries (OR 1.62; 95% CI 1.13–2.32) and depressed mood (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.07–2.24) than children whose homes were not damaged. Among exposed children, no significant decrease of symptoms was detected between 2010 and 2013. Conclusions: Adverse physical and mental health problems experienced by the children exposed to the eruption seem to persist for up to a three-year period post-disaster. These results underline the importance of appropriate follow-up for children after a natural disaster.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term health of children following the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption: a prospective cohort study

Hlodversdóttir

Thorsteinsdottir

Þórðardóttir

et al. 2018

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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“…For example, females may experience greater objective exposure, may have greater prior trauma, or may have a greater number of postdisaster stressors (Kimerling, Mack, & Alvarez, 2009). Note, however, in multivariate models that controlled for possible confounds of this nature, female gender was still found to predict both greater disaster-related psychopathology (Ahern, Galea, Fernandez, et al, 2004;Hoven et al, 2005;Galea, Tracy, Norris, & Coffey, 2008;Weems et al, 2010) and reduced resilience Bonanno, Galea, et al, 2007).…”

Section: The Predisaster Contextmentioning

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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“…Differential effects of trauma exposure have been established for gender (Alisic et al, 2014), age (e.g. Lupien, McEwen, Gunnar, & Heim, 2009;Weems et al, 2010), and ethnicity (López et al, 2017), with stronger effects of trauma exposure for girls, younger children, and Hispanic and black adolescents.…”

Section: Moderatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive functions in trauma-exposed youth: a meta-analysis

Kelder

Akker

Geurts

et al. 2018

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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An earlier meta-analysis and review indicated that trauma exposure may be related to lower levels of executive functioning in youth. Since different developmental trajectories were found for three core executive functions, the present study focused on working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility specifically. We conducted a multi-level meta-analysis on 55 studies and 322 effect sizes published between 2001 and 2017 that were retrieved from MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO. The 8070 participants in selected studies were aged 2-25 years. We investigated whether the association between constructs would be moderated by trauma-specific moderators (onset, duration, and type), and study (age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status) and measurement (quality) characteristics. We found small to medium effect sizes for working memory (d = −0.49), inhibition (d = −0.46), and cognitive flexibility (d = −0.44). Moderator analyses showed that, for working memory, when studies used low-quality measurements the effect size was significantly stronger than when studies used high-quality measurements.Compared to single trauma-exposed youth, violence-exposed/abused and foster care/adopted youth showed more problems in inhibition, and foster care/adopted youth showed more problems in cognitive flexibility. Our findings imply that trauma-exposed youth have lower levels of executive functions. Clinical practice should incorporate problems in executive functioning, especially working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility, in assessment and treatment guidelines.Funciones ejecutivas en jóvenes expuestos al trauma: un metanálisis Planteamiento: Un metanálisis y una revisión previos indicaron que la exposición al trauma podría estar relacionada con niveles más bajos de funcionamiento ejecutivo en los jóvenes. Objetivo: A medida que se encontraron diferentes trayectorias de desarrollo para tres funciones ejecutivas centrales, nos enfocamos específicamente en la memoria de trabajo, la inhibición y la flexibilidad cognitiva. Método: Realizamos un metanálisis multinivel con 55 estudios y 322 tamaños de efectos publicados entre 2001 y 2017, obtenidos de MEDLINE, Embase y PsycINFO. Los 8070 participantes en los estudios seleccionados tenían entre 2 y 25 años. Investigamos si la asociación entre los constructos sería moderada por los moderadores específicos del trauma (inicio, duración y tipo), y las características del estudio (edad, género, etnia, estatus socioeconómico) y características de medición (calidad). Resultados: Encontramos tamaños de efecto de pequeño a mediano para la memoria de trabajo (d = −0.49), la inhibición (d = −0.46) y la flexibilidad cognitiva (d = −0.44). Los análisis del moderador mostraron que, para la memoria de trabajo, cuando los estudios utilizaron mediciones de baja calidad, el tamaño del efecto fue significativamente más fuerte que cuando los estudios utilizaron mediciones de alta calidad. En comparación con los jóvenes expuestos a un solo trauma, los jóvenes expuestos a violencia /abus...

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Post Traumatic Stress, Context, and the Lingering Effects of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster among Ethnic Minority Youth

Cited by 148 publications

References 41 publications

Long-term health of children following the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption: a prospective cohort study

Long-term health of children following the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption: a prospective cohort study

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

Executive functions in trauma-exposed youth: a meta-analysis

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