The influence of flood exposure and subsequent stressors on youth social-emotional health.

Abstract

Most disaster mental health research focuses on the relationship between disaster exposure and distress, often neglecting its influence on social-emotional health, despite implications for resilience and well-being after the disaster. Following multiple floods in Texas, a sample of 486 youth aged 10 -19 years old (M ϭ 13.74 years, SD ϭ 2.57; 52.9% male) completed measures of disaster exposure, life stressors since the disaster, and social-emotional health. Using mixture regression modeling, we examined differences in the relationship between life stressors and social-emotional health across latent classes of disaster exposure (high, moderate, community, and low exposure). After accounting for mean levels of life stressors, the mean levels of social-emotional health did not differ across exposure classes; however, the strength of the relationship between life stressors and social-emotional health did. Youth in the high exposure group had the highest mean level of life stressors since the disaster. Thus, each additional life stressor did not result in changes in social-emotional health, suggesting saturated stress levels. For youth in the moderate and community exposure classes, increases in life stressors did lower social-emotional health, perhaps pushing them into stress overload. For the low exposure group, life stressors did not have an influence. This has implications for postdisaster mental health screening and support, tailored by levels of exposure and attuned to ongoing stressors that may impact long-term social-emotional health. Public Policy Relevance StatementDisaster exposure and subsequent life stressors can affect social-emotional health. Stress overload may happen for the most highly exposed, but for more moderately exposed, additional life stressors impact social-emotional health. Policymakers need to consider how to support the range of disaster survivors and their changing needs over the long haul of disaster recovery, not only the immediate impact.

Why Family Communication Matters: the Role of Co-rumination and Topic Avoidance in Understanding Post-Disaster Mental Health

“…We combined the parent and child life stressors reported, following the same procedures as for flood exposure, to create a total family life stressors score. Predictive validity is supported through the negative relations of life stressors since the disaster to various aspects of social-emotional health among the children (Felix et al, 2020).…”

The Impact of Adolescent Resilience on Mobile Phone Addiction During COVID-19 Normalization and Flooding in China: A Chain Mediating

“… Makwana (2019) indicated that the psychological effects of a disaster were more severe among children, women, and the dependent elderly population. Furthermore, research showed that youth experiencing high levels of exposure to such disasters had the highest mean levels of life stressors ( Felix et al, 2020 ). Jermacane et al (2018) found that anxiety and depression among survivors of widespread flooding in the United Kingdom had a prevalence of over 10% 2 years post-disaster.…”

“…Many adolescents and their parents were trapped in their homes, and some parents volunteered to help with relief efforts. Flooding causes severe stress which continues long after the waters recede ( Felix et al, 2020 ). This prolonged stress can induce behavioral problems in children, lead to grief and economic difficulties for families, increase substance use and misuse, exacerbate existing problems, and negatively impact mental health ( Stanke et al, 2012 ).…”