The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has indicated that schools are vulnerable to school shootings. Understanding the experience of school members who have experienced such tragedies provides important context for further developing much-needed preventive and responsive measures. Using narrative inquiry, we explored the experience of a…

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a concept that can be traced to an article published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1954 recognizing the benefits of early crisis interventions that relieve stress and human suffering. This fact sheet explores the goals of PFA models; outlines when and how schools can implement PFA, including…

On September 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm packing winds of 185 miles per hour skirted the northern coast of Puerto Rico, leaving 1 million residents without electrical power. Schools were closed for 5 days, but a major calamity was narrowly avoided. Overall, residents were grateful for their good fortune, but the same could not be…

Emergency preparedness is a fast developing field of education driven by the numerous disasters worldwide with more recent notable examples including the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the US in 2001, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the London bombings in 2005, the earthquake in China in 2008, the Great East Japan…

Since 2015, more than 560,000 South Sudanese primary school children have received psychosocial support (PSS) through the USAID-funded Integrated Essential Emergency Education Services program implemented by UNICEF. Several South Sudan-based nongovernmental organizations partnered with UNICEF to train local teachers to implement the PSS activities…

This study examined the effect of an intervention on coping knowledge among fifth- and sixth-grade elementary schoolchildren who received smartphone-delivered emergency preparedness education. This was a quasi-experimental study using a pre-/posttest design. Eighty-six children were recruited to participate. The children in the experimental group…

For young children, consistency, nurturance, protection, and support are required for both resilience and full recovery. This article reviews relevant literature, developmental issues affecting young children, and factors that influence resilience and recovery including both promotive and protective influences. Focus is also placed on disaster…

The last decade has seen a growing recognition amongst international donors, development agencies, non-government organisations and academics of the vital role education can play in bringing about recovery following violent conflict, natural disaster and other crises. This has led to the development of increasingly targeted and sophisticated…

Background: Coping with mass emergencies and disasters has become a growing challenge for children, adults and entire communities. Among the population groups affected by disaster, children are particularly vulnerable. Responsible disaster intervention requires both top-down and bottom-up preparation that endorses an ecological perspective, taking…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of coping knowledge for emergency preparedness in Korean elementary school students. A school-based coping education program was provided seven times to 271 fourth- and fifth-grade students in two urban schools by researchers with the school nurses. The Process Model of Stress and Coping and…

Background: Well before the H1N1 influenza, health care organizations worldwide prepared for a pandemic of unpredictable impact. Planners anticipated the possibility of a pandemic involving high mortality, high health care demands, rates of absenteeism rising up to 20-30% among health care workers, rationing of health care, and extraordinary…

Participants from five groups completed a questionnaire that required them to assess their use of 11 coping mechanisms. Participants differed from one another, depending on group affiliation, on five strategies. The strategy judged most important was "maintaining contact with other helpers." Concludes that training programs should…

Participants (n=161) viewed a videotaped "disaster" during which they "placed" themselves on the scene as helpers. Results indicate that two groups, those who had received previous training in coping skills versus those who had not, differed significantly in the use of skills and level of psychological comfort. (Author)