This article reports on effects of two earthquakes in Mexico on adolescents attending middle school. The earthquakes struck in close succession during the implementation of a school-based prevention program, providing an opportunity to assess emotional distress due to the earthquakes and whether the life skills taught in the program affected how…

Japan's Social Thinking and Academic Readiness Training (START) program Academic Readiness (AR) lesson aims to improve self-regulation, executive function, and behavior problems in kindergarten children, but the effects of the START program AR lessons in unfavorable circumstances are unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the…

School-age children are at high risk of experiencing traumatic and stressful events that can negatively impact their academic, emotional, and behavior performance. Students that have been exposed to a traumatic and adverse experience present with high rates of dropout, low academic performance, conduct problems, aggression, depression, and…

This study examines the effects of internal migration driven by severe natural disasters on host communities, and the mechanisms behind these effects, using the large influx of migrant students into Florida public schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. I find significant adverse effects of the influx in the first year on existing student…

Training is an integral part of school safety, security, emergency management and preparedness; everyone involved in the plan needs to know his or her roles and responsibilities before, during, and after an emergency. As one's emergency operations plan (EOP) planning team develops the training and exercise schedule, keep in mind that the Readiness…

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…

School communities in both urban and rural settings need trauma-informed (TI) supports; however, the adversities experienced and access to student supports may be unique to rural school communities. In addition, the contextual challenges experienced by rural schools and communities, as well as the strengths that can be drawn from them, will…

Background: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis constitutes an important biological component of the stress response commonly studied through the measurement of cortisol. Limited research has examined HPA axis dysregulation in youth exposed to disasters. Objective: This study examined HPA axis activation in adolescent Hurricane Katrina…

Objective: This article presents the Journey of Hope (JoH), a school-based intervention for children who have experienced a collective trauma such as a natural disaster. Through the use of group work, the JoH focuses on building coping skills and enhancing protective factors to help children recover. Method: This quasi-experimental research…

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, youth faced significant disruption to their lives due to the storm damage and, for many, long-term evacuation. One domain of functioning that faced significant threat because of this disruption was student engagement. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of student engagement, as measured by the…

Background: In individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 70-90 % have at least one comorbid non-PTSD disorder. Objective: This study tested several hypotheses to untangle comorbidity issues. Following McMillen et al. ("Compr Psychiatry" 43(6):478-485, 2002), we hypothesized that few non-PTSD disorders would arise following…

This study explored pathways through which hurricane-related stressors affected the psychological functioning of elementary school aged children who survived Hurricane Katrina. Participants included 184 mothers from the New Orleans area who completed assessments one year pre-disaster (Time 1), and one and three years post-disaster (Time 2 and Time…

A severe earthquake occurred in Kashmir in 2005. The epicentre was close to Muzzafarabad. We collected data on over 1,100 children 18 months after the earthquake to look at symptoms of PTSD and behavioural and emotional problems using well established questionnaires. We found that 64.8% of children had significant symptoms of PTSD. Girls were more…

This study focused on characteristics of the family environment that may mediate the relationship between disaster exposure and the presence of symptoms that met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for symptom count and duration for an internalizing disorder in children and youth. We also explored how parental history of mental health problems may moderate…

We examined the persistence of psychiatric disorders at approximately 18 and 30 months after a hurricane among a random sample of the child and adolescent population (4-17 years) of Puerto Rico. Data were obtained from caretaker-child dyads (N = 1,886) through in person interviews with primary caretakers (all children) and youth (11-17 years)…