Families Coping with Natural Disasters: Lessons from Wildfires and Tornados

Abstract

Even though parents are the most significant socialization influence during childhood, there has been little study of how parents model and promote their children's adaptive coping in natural disasters. In-depth semi-structured interviews of 56 parents whose families were evacuated from their homes due to wildfires (n = 24, San Diego County, California, October 2007) or multiple deadly tornados (n = 32, Tennessee towns of Lafayette in Macon County and Gallatin in Sumner County, February 2008) were conducted within four days of each disaster. The current study assessed prior and current disaster exposure levels and parents' reports of preparedness or problem solving, emotion regulation, social support, distraction, religious, and family-level coping activities with their children in response to each disaster. By examining parents' rich and complex responses to their disaster experiences, we lay the foundation for the development of models of parental socialization of children's coping effectively during disasters. Findings offer direction for intervention policy and programs that assist parents in managing children's developing competence in response to disasters.

Community Wildfire Preparedness: a Global State-of-the-Knowledge Summary of Social Science Research

“…These include indigenous concerns [33,70,71], examination of different fire management discourses [72-74, 75•, 76], and understanding the physical and mental health impacts of experiencing a wildfire event [54,[77][78][79][80][81][82]. In addition, a number of articles in the Australian literature have begun to explore the role of land use planning in mitigating fire risk [58,83,84] and how gender dynamics can influence preparedness and management dynamics [85,86].…”

Child coping, parent coping assistance, and post‐traumatic stress following paediatric physical injury

“…Studies have examined parent socialization (i.e. coping assistance) of children's efforts to cope with stressors such as divorce, natural disaster, community violence, medical procedures and chronic medical conditions (Miller et al . 1994, 2010; Kliewer & Lewis 1995; Prinstein et al .…”

Mental Health Among Adolescents Exposed to a Tornado: The Influence of Social Support and Its Interactions With Sociodemographic Characteristics and Disaster Exposure

“…One variable of importance in this area is social support, as youths’ relationships with caregivers, family members and peers may strongly influence resilience and postdisaster outcomes (e.g., Bonanno et al, 2010; Masten & Obradovic, 2008). Social support can be particularly important in the face of a tornado, as families often gather together for safety and comfort during the storm and report utilizing high levels of social support posttornado (Miller et al, 2012). …”

“…Responses to natural disasters are affected by the ability to predict and prepare for them, ranging from days for hurricanes to minutes for tornadoes (Evans & Oehler-Stinnett, 2006a). Of note, the quick and unpredictable movement of tornadoes further effects preparedness and the implementation of safety measures (Miller et al, 2012).…”