Getting through : children and youth post-disaster effective coping and adaptation in the context of the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010-1012 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand

The study aims to understand how children cope effectively with a disaster, and to identify resources and processes that promote effective coping and adaptation. The context is the 2010–2012 Canterbury earthquake disaster in New Zealand. This qualitative study explores coping strategies in forty-two children from three age groups: five, nine and fifteen year-olds (Time 1). It draws on data from semi-structured interviews with the children, their parents, teachers and principals of five schools in Canterbury. Two schools in Wellington, a region with similar seismic risk, served as a useful comparison group. All children were interviewed twenty months after the first earthquake (T1) during an ongoing aftershock sequence, and six selected children from Christchurch were interviewed again (Time Two), three years after the initial earthquake. Findings have identified multiple inter-connected coping strategies and multi-level resources in the children and in their immediate contexts; these were fundamental to their post-disaster adaptation. Children who coped effectively used a repertoire of diverse coping strategies adapted to challenges, and in a culturally appropriate and flexible manner. Coping strategies included: emotional regulation, problem-solving, positive reframing, helping others, seeking support, and ―getting on‖. Although emotional regulation was important in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, children adapting positively used heterogeneous combinations of coping strategies and resources. Proximal others provided coping assistance through modelling and coaching. Intra and interpersonal resources, such as self-efficacy and supportive parental and teacher relationships that promoted children‘s effective coping are identified and discussed. Children who coped effectively with the disaster appeared to have a larger coping repertoire and more practise in use than children in the Wellington comparison group, who were coping essentially with age appropriate challenges. By Time Two, all children in the cohort reported coping effectively, that they were stronger from their experience and had shifted their focus so that their coping skills were now employed for everyday challenges and for moving on with their lives, rather than focused on managing disaster events. Findings suggest that children can be coached to learn effective coping. Key recommendations are made for effective interventions for children and caregivers around children‘s effective coping and adaptation, and avenues for future research are detailed

Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community: A Post-disaster Group Work Intervention for Healthcare and Social Service Providers

Healthcare and social service providers play a critical role in supporting children, families and communities immediately after a disaster and throughout the recovery process. These providers, who may have also experienced the disaster and related losses, are among the least likely to receive mental health or psychological support which can result in burnout, secondary traumatic stress, depression and anxiety. Accessible psychosocial interventions designed for healthcare and social service providers in the aftermath of a disaster are therefore critical to recovery and to ensure providers are available to support families after future disasters. The purpose of this article is to describe Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community (RCHC), a manualized group work intervention for social service and health care providers who have provided care to children, families, and communities after a natural disaster. RCHC is currently being delivered in response to Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, storms that struck the gulf coast of the United States and the island of Puerto Rico in 2017. RCHC has also been used in the areas affected by Hurricane Sandy (New York and New Jersey), in Shreveport, Louisiana following severe flooding and in Saipan after a Typhoon devastated the island. Healthcare and social service providers who have received RCHC include the staff of Federally Qualified Health Centers and other community clinics, Disaster Case Managers, Child Care Providers, Mental Health Providers and First Responders. The health and wellbeing of these providers directly impacts their ability to provide quality care to families in their communities. This article presents the theoretical foundations of the RCHC intervention, describes the intervention in detail, provides a description of early and ongoing evaluation studies, and discusses the conditions for both implementation of RCHC and training of RCHC providers. The RCHC psychoeducational intervention provides education on, and strategies for, acute, chronic and post-traumatic stress, coping, and resilience, tailored for the needs of the helping professions. Through the use of individual and collective processing, healthcare and social service providers participating in RCHC develop both individual and collective coping plans. Considering the short and long-term impacts of disasters on communities’ essential healthcare and social service workforce, interventions like RCHC stand to provide essential benefits, including retention and wellbeing of providers of family services

Long-term risks of complicated grief and insomnia in student survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster in South Korea: A four-year observational follow-up study

Background: The Sewol ferry disaster in April 2014 resulted in the drowning of 304 people. Of the 325 students on board, 250 died and 75 were rescued. The measure of stress caused by bereavement and sleep problems is common and can be a chronic health concern for disaster survivors. The aim of this study was to determine longitudinal predictive factors of complicated grief and insomnia among student survivors of the disaster. Methods: This study centered on 67 student survivors who were enrolled in the disaster registry after graduating from high school. The self-report data as presented by the participants were collected at baseline (27 months after the disaster, T1) and again at two years later (51 months after the disaster, T2). Thirty-one participants completed both T1 and T2 surveys. The noted predictive variables, in this case, were event-related rumination, coping strategy, social support, attachment, meaning in life, and adverse childhood experiences. The outcome variables were complicated grief and insomnia. Results: Dysfunctional coping (T1) was positively associated with complicated grief (T2) (coefficient = 0.070; p<0.001). Intrusive rumination (T1) (coefficient = -0.114; p<0.001), social support (T1) (coefficient = -0.031; p<0.001), and meaning in life – search (T1) (coefficient = -0.082; p<0.001) were negatively associated with insomnia (T2). In contrast, dysfunctional coping (T1) (coefficient = 0.041; p = 0.012), adverse childhood experiences (T1) (coefficient = 0.280; p = 0.007), and insomnia (T1) (coefficient = 0.166; p<0.001) were positively associated with insomnia (T2). Conclusions: Dysfunctional coping influenced how student survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster suffered from complicated grief and insomnia over time. In this case, the findings from the current study indicate that interventions that target coping strategies should be provided to improve the resolution of grief and sleep among survivors. [Ethiop.J. Health Dev. 2020;34(Special issue-3):97-106] Keywords: Sewol ferry disaster, student survivors, coping strategy, complicated grief, insomni

Children’s coping styles and trauma symptoms after an explosion disaster

Background: The negative impact of trauma on children and adolescents is well documented. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between coping and trauma and distress symptoms after man-made disasters, especially those not related to war. Objective: This study investigated the relationship between children’s coping styles and their self-reported levels of trauma and distress symptoms after an explosion disaster in a residential area. Method: Participants were recruited through the local public school that served the affected residential area. A total of 333 children and adolescents from grades 3 through 10 participated in the study 16 months after the explosion. All participants filled out questionnaires to assess their trauma and distress symptoms as well as their coping strategies. The adolescents answered additional questions about pre-, peri-, and post-traumatic factors and filled out questionnaires about their trauma and distress symptoms, including aspects of somatization and negative affectivity. Results: The following variables were associated with a higher degree of trauma symptoms for children in grades 6 through 10 and explained 39% to 48% of the unique variance in these symptoms: female gender; the experience of traumatic events pre-disaster; the destruction of property or danger to life occurring during the disaster; the experience of traumatic events post-disaster; and the use of self-blame, emotion regulation, wishful thinking, and cognitive restructuring. For the younger children, pre-, peri-, and post-disaster factors were not measured. However, female gender and the use of self-blame as a coping strategy explained 26% of the variance in trauma symptoms. Conclusions: This study generally supports the findings of the limited literature addressing coping skills after man-made disasters. However, contrary to previous findings in community samples after episodes of terrorism, adaptive coping strategies such as cognitive restructuring were found to influence the variance of trauma and distress symptoms

Children’s coping styles and trauma symptoms after an explosion disaster

Background: The negative impact of trauma on children and adolescents is well documented. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between coping and trauma and distress symptoms after man-made disasters, especially those not related to war. Objective: This study investigated the relationship between children’s coping styles and their self-reported levels of trauma and distress symptoms after an explosion disaster in a residential area. Method: Participants were recruited through the local public school that served the affected residential area. A total of 333 children and adolescents from grades 3 through 10 participated in the study 16 months after the explosion. All participants filled out questionnaires to assess their trauma and distress symptoms as well as their coping strategies. The adolescents answered additional questions about pre-, peri-, and post-traumatic factors and filled out questionnaires about their trauma and distress symptoms, including aspects of somatization and negative affectivity. Results: The following variables were associated with a higher degree of trauma symptoms for children in grades 6 through 10 and explained 39% to 48% of the unique variance in these symptoms: female gender; the experience of traumatic events pre-disaster; the destruction of property or danger to life occurring during the disaster; the experience of traumatic events post-disaster; and the use of self-blame, emotion regulation, wishful thinking, and cognitive restructuring. For the younger children, pre-, peri-, and post-disaster factors were not measured. However, female gender and the use of self-blame as a coping strategy explained 26% of the variance in trauma symptoms. Conclusions: This study generally supports the findings of the limited literature addressing coping skills after man-made disasters. However, contrary to previous findings in community samples after episodes of terrorism, adaptive coping strategies such as cognitive restructuring were found to influence the variance of trauma and distress symptoms

The Tsunami and the Chit Fund- Evidence from the Indian Ocean Tsunami Hit on Credit Demand in South India

We analyze the effects of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on credit demand in South India. Combining data from a semi-formal financial intermediary with geophysical data on the Tsunami, we estimate the extent to which the price of credit and the structure of credit flows changed in response to this shock. We find a significant increase in the interest rate by 5.3 per cent on average in the affected branches around the Tsunami. Interest rates increased most dramatically in the first three months after the Tsunami hit and decreased subsequently over the year 2005. We conclude that (i) funds provided by Roscas did play a role for coping with this huge negative shock, (ii) repercussions of the Tsunami in the Rosca credit market were limited in terms of the order of magnitude of effects, and (iii) semi-formal credit and official aid are substitutes as disaster coping mechanisms rather than complements. --Roscas,Credit and Savings Associations,Rural Finance,Microfinance,Coping Strategies,Natural Disaster,Impact Evaluation

KONSELING ISLAM UNTUK MENINGKATKAN STRATEGI COPING KORBAN BENCANA KEBAKARAN DI KOTA SAMARINDA

Fire is one of the most common man-made disasters that happen in Samarinda. Densely packed neighborhood and wooden-based buildings are often responsible to worsen the fire caused by electrical short-circuit. After the fire, victims are usually suffering from psychological traumas. Such traumas could impulsively trigger the emergence of coping strategy within individuals who are victims of the fire disaster. This paper, thus, aims at revealing the coping strategy used by victims of the fire to resolve problems that emerged in the aftermath of the disaster. This paper employs a qualitative-descriptive method and collects data through observations, interviews, and documentation. Findings reveal several factors that contribute both positively and negatively to the coping strategy developed by victims of fire disaster in Samarinda. Factors that enhance the quality of the victims’ coping strategy are spiritual faith, material supports from governments, and social supports from the victims’ community. Factors that hinder the optimal development of victims’ coping strategies are uneven patterns of support distributions and lack of professional counseling and psychological supports from the government. Lack of expert personnel to help victims deal with such crises provides an opportunity for professionals in the area of Islamic Counselling and Guidance to implement Islamic counseling to optimize the victims’ coping strategy.Keywords: Coping strategy, fire disaster, Islamic counseling, and Samarind

KONSELING ISLAM UNTUK MENINGKATKAN STRATEGI COPING KORBAN BENCANA KEBAKARAN DI KOTA SAMARINDA

Fire is a form of disaster that often occurs in the city of Samarinda. The densely populated location and construction of residential houses made from wood often exacerbate the magnitude of the fire which is mostly caused by short-circuiting of electricity. One of the impacts that befell the fire victims is psychological trauma. The trauma impulsively raises coping strategies in the individual. This study aims to see how the coping strategy of fire victims in overcoming the problems that befall them after the disaster. This study uses descriptive qualitative method with three data collected techniques, namely observation, interview and documentation. The results of the study prove that there are supporting and inhibiting factors for coping strategies for victims of fire disasters in Samarinda City. Supporting Factors Victim coping strategies are spiritual beliefs, material assistance from State institutions, and support from the victims' social environment. On the other hand, the inhibiting factor of the fire victim coping strategy is the uneven distribution of aid patterns and the absence of experts in the field of counseling or psychology. On the other hand, the government also has not provided experts such as psychologists or counselors who are tasked with dealing with psychological crises experienced by post-disaster victims. The absence of experts in dealing with the conditions of the fire victims crisis can be taken over by experts in Islamic counseling to apply Islamic counseling to enhance the coping strategies of victims of fire disasters in Samarinda City.Keyword: Coping Strategy, Disaster, Fire, Samarinda Cit