Children's Adjustment Following Hurricane Katrina: The Role of Primary Caregivers

• Published in: American journal of orthopsychiatry Vol. 83; no. 2-3; pp. 413 - 421
• Main Authors: Gil-Rivas, Virginia, Kilmer, Ryan P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2013; Wiley; American Psychological Association; Educational Publishing Foundation
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adjustment; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Biological and medical sciences; Caregiver Burden; caregiver distress; caregiver warmth; Caregivers; Caregivers - psychology; caregiver–child conflict; Child; Child Care Services; Children; Conflict; Cyclonic Storms; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Depression - diagnosis; depressive symptoms; disaster; Disasters; Distress; Female; Human; Humans; Hurricane Katrina; Hurricanes; Intergenerational relationships; Louisiana; Male; Medical sciences; Mental depression; Mental health; Miscellaneous; Mississippi; Mood disorders; Natural Disasters; Perception; Perceptions; Post traumatic stress disorder; posttraumatic stress; Psychological Distress; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis; Symptoms; trauma; U.S.A; United States; Louisiana; United States; Mississippi; United States > US; trauma; caregivers; posttraumatic stress; caregiver-child conflict; children; caregiver warmth; caregiver distress; depressive symptoms; Hurricane Katrina; disaster; Human; Mood disorder; Anxiety disorder; Caregiver; Mental health; Depression; Disaster; Caregiver burden; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Trauma; Symptomatology; Conflict; Psychological distress; caregiver―child conflict; Child; Public health
• ISSN: 0002-9432; 1939-0025
• DOI: 10.1111/ajop.12016

Hurricane Katrina severely disrupted the lives of many children and families in the central Gulf Coast of the United States. Face-to-face interviews with child-caregiver dyads were conducted at approximately 1 year posthurricane (T1) and 6-10 months later (T2). The contribution of several factors-caregiver's self-reported symptomatology and coping advice and child perceptions of caregiver distress, unavailability, warmth, and caregiver-child conflict-to child-reported posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and depressive symptoms was examined. Findings provide partial support for the importance of the care-giving context to children's adjustment. Specifically, higher levels of caregiver-child conflict at T1 were associated with more PTSS at T2, controlling for baseline symptoms. In contrast, higher levels of caregiver education were negatively related to child PTSS at T2. After adjusting for objective hurricane exposure and symptoms at T1, none of the caregiving variables was related to child-reported depressive symptoms at T2. The implications of these findings for efforts to promote children's adjustment after disaster are discussed.