Adults need to recognize and understand the importance of the parent-child relationship in supporting infants and young children who are exposed to traumatic events. All children need the support, security, and safety that come with a consistent, emotionally available relationship. For young children who have a more limited understanding and…

Covering traumatic story assignments is often central to a journalist's job. Violent crimes, natural disasters, and tragic personal struggles--these are newsworthy events. Studies have associated trauma coverage with higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder, burnout, and other traumatic stress symptoms in reporters. This study uses a survey…

Addressing mental and behavioral health effects of disaster media coverage is an important part of a disaster public health response, and school staff may be particularly well suited to help children and youth cope with disaster media. We conducted qualitative interviews (N = 42) to explore US school staff (e.g., teachers, mental health staff,…

The ways in which youth cope with the following traumatic experiences have a critical impact on resilience and recovery, yet few measures adequately assess adolescent coping behaviors while exhibiting sound psychometric properties. The current study uses exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to analyze data from the Kidcope, an…

The present study is a pilot study to examine the initial effectiveness of the Support for Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET) program (Jaycox et al. in Support for Students Exposed to Trauma: the SSET program. Lesson plans, worksheets, and materials. TR-675, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, 2009) in reducing PTSD symptoms and building resilience and social…

The long-term nature of mental health needs after disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, continues to require attention. Research that emerged during the anniversaries of the storm has shown Katrina and its aftermath to be associated with posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior, and somatic complaints in children and…

The postdisaster experiences of social work students have been the focus of a growing corpus of research in the past two decades; however, few investigations have been conducted in the context of catastrophic flooding events. The present study examined coping responses and mental health among 186 social work students in the aftermath of the Great…

More than 260 presidentially-declared major disasters have occurred since 2017, affecting every state and several U.S. territories, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Many of these natural disasters have had devastating effects, including rendering K-12 school facilities unusable for extended periods of time. These…

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…

Introduction: The current study aimed to investigate the psychological impact of the Turkey 2023 earthquakes on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents residing in Hatay, Sanliurfa, and Ankara provinces, encompassing the periods both before and after the Turkey 2023 earthquakes. Method: This cross-sectional, multicenter…

This reflection on practice provides a foundation for understanding the impact of Hurricane Harvey on teachers and children across the Texas Gulf Coast. It also documents the emergence of a professional development initiative born when early childhood teacher educators in the community outreach arm of a major university sought to provide immediate…

This article provides readers with information regarding the impact of disasters on children. It introduces basic relief efforts and mental health services that are common to most disaster-related situations. Classroom- and community-based interventions are also included along with conclusions and key points for educators.

The Tennessee First Five Training Institute (TFFTI) is a workforce development project to build infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) capacity across Tennessee's community mental health agencies. TFFTI focused on foundational trainings in IECMH concepts, training in child-parent psychotherapy, dyadic, trauma treatment for children birth…

This dissertation consists of three independent chapters in applied microeconomics. In the first chapter, I study the causal effect impact of early life circumstances on adult psychological well-being using the property reform in China as a positive and policy driven change in economic resources in early life. Exploiting the staggered adoption of…

The Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquake disaster of 2010-2011 had a major impact on children. The present study aims to increase understanding of schools' contributions to children's recovery by examining how this core context fosters children's effective coping in a disaster. The study uses a phenomenological approach to investigate the disaster…