Large scale natural disasters pose serious risks to mental health and simultaneously wreak havoc on the very systems called upon to ameliorate those risks. School-based mental health services have been identified as a potential mechanism through which gaps in service delivery systems can be addressed in post-disaster environments. We believe that…

In the present study, the authors examined the role of child-related stressors in the psychological adjustment of lower-income, primarily unmarried and African American, mothers (N = 386). All participants lived in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, and about a third were also exposed to Hurricane Rita (30.3%, n = 117). Lacking knowledge of a…

The author explores the articulations of six social studies student/teachers after a viewing of "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts". The film, a documentary about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the people in and around New Orleans, constitutes an encounter with what Deborah Britzman (1998) calls "difficult…

Juntunen and Parham each reacted positively with important personal reflections and/or calls to action in response to "Counseling Psychology and Large-Scale Disasters, Catastrophes, and Traumas: Opportunities for Growth." We comment on the primary themes and suggestions they raised. Since the time we were stimulated by Katrina and its aftermath…

Evaluation designs for social programs are developed assuming minimal or no disruption from external shocks, such as natural disasters. This is because extremely rare shocks may not make it worthwhile to account for them in the design. Among extreme shocks is the 2010 Chile earthquake. Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), an ongoing early childhood program in…

This compilation offers global examples of innovative and promising literacy and numeracy programmes that link the teaching and learning of literacy to sustainable development challenges such as health, social equality, economic empowerment and environmental sustainability. This publication is a timely contribution to the 2030 Agenda for…

This ethnographic research investigates how adolescents use writing. Deborah M. Alvarez uncovers the hidden abuses and violence that adolescents bore with each school day. In two different research sites, the author follows adolescents through their academic and personal lives to discover how they use writing only to uncover the impact the public…

The authors examined predictors of complicated grief (CG) in Norwegians 2 years after bereavement in the 2004 South-East Asian tsunami. A cross-sectional postal survey retrospectively covering disaster experiences and assessing CG according to the Inventory of Complicated Grief yielded 130 respondents (35 directly disaster-exposed and 95 not…

Objective: Meta-analyze the literature on posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in youths post-disaster. Method: Meta-analytic synthesis of the literature (k = 96 studies; N[subscript total] = 74,154) summarizing the magnitude of associations between disasters and youth PTS, and key factors associated with variations in the magnitude of these…

When devastating natural disasters struck Asia last year--typhoons in Taiwan and the Philippines and an earthquake in Indonesia--members of the Asian Interest Forum (AIF) worried about basic living environments and the emotional needs of children in these regions. AIF decided to focus on helping victims of Morakot, the deadliest typhoon in…

On April 20, 2010, a massive explosion killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Survivors of this explosion recounted terrifying near-death experiences and mourned the loss of coworkers and friends who had perished. Shock and grief spread through small coastal communities composed mostly of fishers and oil workers. However, this was…

This article critically reflects on our effort to "teach across the divide", by integrating physical and human geography in a new first-year course. We achieved this integration by structuring our course around a series of key events, in order to draw out the interaction of "natural" and "social" forces. After setting…

This study examines the perceptions of public school principals in New Orleans, Louisiana during the period of extensive decentralization in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Using the frameworks of systems theory and chaos/complexity theories, iterative interviews with 10 school principals form the core data which examines leaders' experiences…

Daily stressors may mediate the relation between exposure to disaster-related stressors and psychological and psychosocial distress among youth in disaster-affected countries. A sample of 427 Sri Lankan Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim youth (mean age = 14.5) completed a survey with measures of exposure to disaster-related stressors and daily…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether projective techniques could identify long-term consequences among children stemming from exposure to a traumatic event. The first group of children (n = 53; 26 female, 27 male) experienced 2 major earthquakes at age 7, 3 months apart, in Turkey, while a similarly matched control group…