Submitted Successfully!
To reward your contribution, here is a gift for you: A free trial for our video production service.
Thank you for your contribution! You can also upload a video entry or images related to this topic.
Version Summary Created by Modification Content Size Created at Operation
1
Tara Powell
 + 1262 word(s) 1262 2021-05-12 10:17:11

Video Upload Options

We provide professional Video Production Services to translate complex research into visually appealing presentations. Would you like to try it?
No, upload directly Yes

Confirm

Are you sure to Delete?
Yes No
Cite
If you have any further questions, please contact Encyclopedia Editorial Office.
Powell, T. Acute Onset Disaster. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/9863 (accessed on 15 November 2024).
Powell T. Acute Onset Disaster. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/9863. Accessed November 15, 2024.
Powell, Tara. "Acute Onset Disaster" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/9863 (accessed November 15, 2024).
Powell, T. (2021, May 19). Acute Onset Disaster. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/9863
Powell, Tara. "Acute Onset Disaster." Encyclopedia. Web. 19 May, 2021.
Acute Onset Disaster
Edit
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/ijerph18094865

Acute onset disasters impact children’s and adolescents’ psychological well-being, often leading to mental health challenges. The way a young person copes with the event plays a significant role in development of post-disaster psychopathology. Coping has been widely studied after acute onset disasters, however, difficulties conducting research in post-disaster contexts and the individualized nature of coping make accurate assessment of coping a significant challenge.

coping post-traumatic stress adolescents children disaster

1. Introduction

Sudden onset disasters, such as hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis, and terrorist attacks leave survivors susceptible to adverse mental health outcomes, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety [1][2][3]. Children and adolescents are among the most vulnerable to mental health difficulties after these disasters because they have less experience and knowledge on how to cope with these events [3][4]. In addition to disaster exposure, young people can experience a host of secondary stressors including separation from family and friends, loss of pets, displacement from home and school, and lack of basic needs, such as food, water, and medical care [4]. Common disaster-related distress reactions in children and adolescents include internalized symptoms, such as acute stress disorder, PTSD, depression, or generalized anxiety; and externalizing symptoms, such as behavior problems, substance abuse, and aggressive behaviors [5][6][7][8].

While many young people will experience disaster-related distress, most will adapt to their environment with only a subset experiencing sustained psychopathology. The development of psychological distress in children and adolescents has been closely linked to a myriad of risk and protective factors. Factors that put a young person at risk for mental health distress can include high levels of disaster exposure, low parental support, social isolation, poverty, and pre-existing mental health symptoms such as anxiety and depression [6][8][9]. Conversely, protective factors, such as peer social support, school connectedness, supportive parenting, problem solving, self-regulation skills, perceived self-efficacy, and positive maternal–child relationships can buffer the psychological impact of large-scale sudden-onset disasters [6][10].

The way children and adolescents cope may also serve as a protective or risk factor for post-disaster psychological symptoms. A young person’s ability to utilize adaptive or active coping methods, for example, can function as a barrier to the development of trauma-related symptomology [11]. Research has also indicated that acceptance, emotional expression, and cognitive reframing may buffer the psychological impact of a disaster on young people [6][12][13]. Alternatively, avoidant coping strategies, blame and anger, and social withdrawal have all been associated with higher levels of depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms in young people [14][15][16][17][18].

The accuracy of measures used to assess children’s coping and post-disaster mental health is essential in order to draw valid conclusions from study results. Post-disaster environments present unique challenges for conducting rigorous research [19]; one such challenge is finding valid, reliable psychological measures that can be feasibly accessed and administered within the constraints of a post-disaster setting. Balaban [20] recommended that post-disaster research should include relatively short, standardized questionnaires that can be administered by non-clinicians and that have previously demonstrated strong reliability and validity in post-disaster settings. Establishing strong psychometric properties for coping measures with the specific populations studied is necessary to ascertain content validity of the measure, given that coping is affected by a myriad of changing influences, such as individual characteristics, culture, and context. Even when examining psychometrically well-established measures, previous reviews have found a high degree of inconsistency in how dimensions of coping were described, making it difficult to draw valid conclusions across studies and measures [21].

2. Coping with Acute Onset Disaster

Post-disaster contexts are notoriously difficult settings in which to conduct rigorous research due to the many practical barriers, such as the rapid nature of response, loss of resources, damaged infrastructure, and ethical and clinical considerations for working with trauma-affected populations. Thus, researchers are often met with significant challenges in obtaining consent, recruiting participants, acquiring funding, and developing rigorous study designs [19].

Few surprises were found among the relationship between coping strategies and PTSD symptoms. In general, active or positive coping mechanisms were either inversely related to PTSD symptomology or positively correlated with symptoms at a smaller magnitude than passive or negative coping mechanisms. Youth who reported more frequent use of coping strategies, such as rumination, negative coping, emotion-focused, escape-oriented and avoidance coping, and blame and anger were more likely to experience higher PTSD symptoms than peers who did not rely as much on these coping methods. Of the three studies that reported changes over time, the association between coping and PTSD weakened over time in two studies [12][22]; and remained stable across three time points in the third study [15].

Belief in the ability to cope (such as reminding yourself of your capacity for resilience) and youth’s beliefs in their own capacity to cope in a healthy way were weakly correlated with PTSD symptoms [12]. Scholars have consistently found that coping self-efficacy is associated with lower rates of PTSD in trauma-affected children and adolescents [23][24]. Unfortunately, few studies in the reviewed articles incorporated measures of coping self-efficacy, and those that did, did not include additional measures examining coping styles or strategies. In post disaster settings, practitioners and researchers should assess both children and adolescents coping self-efficacy and ways of coping, which would provide a deeper understanding of most appropriate post-disaster mental health prevention and treatment interventions.

Maintaining typical roles and routines in family and school settings was also inversely associated with PTSD symptoms [25], suggesting that consistent relationships and interactions are important to help youth manage post-disaster stress and emotions. Establishment of roles and routines is a form of coping assistance that families, clinicians, and educators can use to help children and youth restore a sense of normalcy and predictability in a post-disaster environment.

Included studies that measured distraction identified the strategy as maladaptive/negative and related to more severe PTSD symptoms. Historically, distraction has been classified as both helpful and harmful for trauma-affected youth [6][26]. Distraction may be used to mask feelings of grief, which could potentially have a negative long-term impact on children and adolescent adjustment. Conversely, young people may use distraction to reduce rumination or continuous thoughts about the event (e.g., doing fun things to not think about the stressor). Distracting oneself as an escape- or avoidance-focused coping strategy was not especially highly associated with PTSD symptoms compared to other escape/avoidance strategies in the reviewed studies. However, having others (family, teachers, or peers) distract youth from the trauma was strongly associated with PTSD symptoms [25]. A possible explanation for why self-distraction was not as strongly associated with PTSD as distraction efforts by others may be that the distraction efforts by others are a response to signs that a young person is having trouble coping e.g., “I can see that they are struggling, so I will try to take their mind off it”—whereas youth who distract themselves might be using the strategy more effectively to manage post-disaster stress. Therefore, it is important to conceptualize how distraction is assessed to understand the relationship of this coping style with psychopathology in disaster affected children and youth.

Finally, intrusive rumination was highly correlated with PTSD symptoms [27]. This is unsurprising as research has consistently found that ruminative thoughts such as future-oriented worry and repeatedly thinking about or replaying a trauma is associated with greater PTSD symptoms [28]. This reaffirms the need for interventions focused on positive cognitive restructuring and building coping competency beliefs, which have been effective at reducing incidents of intrusive and repetitive rumination [29][30].

3. Conclusions

Understanding the relationship between coping with sudden onset disasters and post-traumatic stress in young people is critical to support their short and long-term psychological well-being. Improved knowledge of this important relationship can also guide the design and delivery of post-disaster interventions for children and adolescents.

References

  1. Garrett, A.L.; Grant, R.; Madrid, P.; Brito, A.; Abramson, D.; Redlener, I. Children and Megadisasters: Lessons Learned in the New Millennium. Adv. Pediatr. 2007, 54, 189–214.
  2. Ursano, R.J.; Cerise, F.P.; DeMartino, R.; Reissman, D.B.; Shear, M.K. The Impact of Disasters and Their Aftermath on Mental Health. Prim. Care Companion J. Clin. Psychiatry 2006, 8, 4–11.
  3. Wang, C.-W.; Chan, C.L.W.; Ho, R.T.H. Prevalence and trajectory of psychopathology among child and adolescent survivors of disasters: A systematic review of epidemiological studies across 1987–2011. Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol. 2013, 48, 1697–1720.
  4. Lock, S.; Rubin, G.J.; Murray, V.; Rogers, M.B.; Amlot, R.; Williams, R. Secondary stressors and extreme events and disasters: A systematic review of primary research from 2010–2011. PLoS Curr. 2012, 4.
  5. Cohen, J.R.; Danielson, C.K.; Adams, Z.W.; Ruggiero, K.J. Distress Tolerance and Social Support in Adolescence: Predicting Risk for Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms Following a Natural Disaster. J. Psychopathol. Behav. Assess. 2016, 38, 538–546.
  6. Pfefferbaum, B.; Jacobs, A.K.; Griffin, N.; Houston, J.B. Children’s Disaster Reactions: The Influence of Exposure and Personal Characteristics. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 2015, 17, 56.
  7. Pfefferbaum, B.; Jacobs, A.K.; Van Horn, R.L.; Houston, J.B. Effects of Displacement in Children Exposed to Disasters. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 2016, 18, 71.
  8. Becker-Blease, K.A.; Turner, H.A.; Finkelhor, D. Disasters, Victimization, and Children’s Mental Health. Child Dev. 2010, 81, 1040–1052.
  9. Busso, D.S.; McLaughlin, K.A.; Sheridan, M.A. Media Exposure and Sympathetic Nervous System Reactivity Predict PTSD Symptoms after the Boston Marathon Bombings. Depress. Anxiety 2014, 31, 551–558.
  10. Sapienza, J.K.; Masten, A.S. Understanding and promoting resilience in children and youth. Curr. Opin. Psychiatry 2011, 24, 267–273.
  11. Pfefferbaum, B.; Noffsinger, M.A.; Wind, L.H.; Allen, J.R. Children’s Coping in the Context of Disasters and Terrorism. J. Loss Trauma 2014, 19, 78–97.
  12. Kilmer, R.P.; Gil-Rivas, V. Exploring Posttraumatic Growth in Children Impacted by Hurricane Katrina: Correlates of the Phenomenon and Developmental Considerations. Child Dev. 2010, 81, 1211–1227.
  13. Gil-Rivas, V.; Silver, R.C.; Holman, E.A.; McIntosh, D.N.; Poulin, M. Parental response and adolescent adjustment to the 11 september 2001 terrorist attacks. J. Trauma. Stress 2007, 20, 1063–1068.
  14. An, Y.; Fu, F.; Wu, X.; Lin, C.; Zhang, Y. Longitudinal Relationships Between Neuroticism, Avoidant Coping, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Adolescents Following the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China. J. Loss Trauma 2013, 18, 556–571.
  15. La Greca, A.M.; Lai, B.S.; Llabre, M.M.; Silverman, W.K.; Vernberg, E.M.; Prinstein, M.J. Children’s Postdisaster Trajectories of PTS Symptoms: Predicting Chronic Distress. Child Youth Care Forum 2013, 42, 351–369.
  16. Navarro, P.N.; Landin-Romero, R.; Guardiola-Wanden-Berghe, R.; Moreno-Alcázar, A.; Valiente-Gómez, A.; Lupo, W.; García, F.; Fernández, I.; Pérez, V.; Amann, B.L. 25 years of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): The EMDR therapy protocol, hypotheses of its mechanism of action and a systematic review of its efficacy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Rev. Psiquiatr. Salud Ment. (Engl. Ed.) 2018, 11, 101–114.
  17. Papadatou, D.; Giannopoulou, I.; Bitsakou, P.; Bellali, T.; Talias, M.A.; Tselepi, K. Adolescents’ reactions after a wildfire disaster in Greece. J. Trauma. Stress 2012, 25, 57–63.
  18. Pina, A.A.; Villalta, I.K.; Ortiz, C.D.; Gottschall, A.C.; Costa, N.M.; Weems, C.F. Social Support, Discrimination, and Coping as Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Reactions in Youth Survivors of Hurricane Katrina. J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 2008, 37, 564–574.
  19. Grolnick, W.S.; Schonfeld, D.J.; Schreiber, M.; Cohen, J.; Cole, V.; Jaycox, L.; Lochman, J.; Pfefferbaum, B.; Ruggiero, K.; Wells, K.; et al. Improving adjustment and resilience in children following a disaster: Addressing research challenges. Am. Psychol. 2018, 73, 215–229.
  20. Balaban, V. Psychological Assessment of Children in Disasters and Emergencies. Disasters 2006, 30, 178–198.
  21. Pfefferbaum, B.; North, C.S. Child Disaster Mental Health Services: A Review of the System of Care, Assessment Approaches, and Evidence Base for Intervention. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 2016, 18, 5.
  22. Terranova, A.M.; Boxer, P.; Morris, A.S. Factors influencing the course of posttraumatic stress following a natural disaster: Children’s reactions to Hurricane Katrina. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 2009, 30, 344–355.
  23. Benight, C.C.; Bandura, A. Social cognitive theory of posttraumatic recovery: The role of perceived self-efficacy. Behav. Res. Ther. 2004, 42, 1129–1148.
  24. Gallagher, M.W.; Long, L.J.; Phillips, C.A. Hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analytic review of the protective effects of positive expectancies. J. Clin. Psychol. 2019, 76, 329–355.
  25. Prinstein, M.J.; La Greca, A.M.; Vernberg, E.M.; Silverman, W.K. Children’s Coping Assistance: How Parents, Teachers, and Friends Help Children Cope After a Natural Disaster. J. Clin. Child Psychol. 1996, 25, 463–475.
  26. Woodward, E.C.; Viana, A.G.; Trent, E.S.; Raines, E.M.; Zvolensky, M.J.; Storch, E.A. Emotional Nonacceptance, Distraction Coping and PTSD Symptoms in a Trauma-Exposed Adolescent Inpatient Sample. Cogn. Ther. Res. 2019, 44, 412–419.
  27. Martin, N.C.; Felton, J.W.; Cole, D.A. Predictors of Youths’ Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Following a Natural Disaster: The 2010 Nashville, Tennessee, Flood. J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 2014, 45, 1–13.
  28. Moulds, M.L.; Bisby, M.A.; Wild, J.; Bryant, R.A. Rumination in posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 2020, 82, 101910.
  29. Topper, M.; Emmelkamp, P.M.; Watkins, E.; Ehring, T. Prevention of anxiety disorders and depression by targeting excessive worry and rumination in adolescents and young adults: A randomized controlled trial. Behav. Res. Ther. 2017, 90, 123–136.
  30. Watkins, E.R.; Roberts, H. Reflecting on rumination: Consequences, causes, mechanisms and treatment of rumination. Behav. Res. Ther. 2020, 127, 103573.
More
© Text is available under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Upload a video for this entry
Information
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical
Contributor MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register :
Tara Powell
View Times: 515
Revision: 1 time (View History)
Update Date: 19 May 2021
Table of Contents
    1000/1000
    Hot Most Recent
    ScholarVision Creations
    Feedback