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Youth Psychosocial Adjustment Following Wildfire: The Role of Family Resilience, Emotional Support, and Concrete Support

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Abstract

Background

Natural disasters can have a significant impact on youth and family mental health and well-being. However, the relationship between family protective factors and youth adjustment in the aftermath of disaster remains unclear.

Objective

In order to address the present gaps in the field, this study investigated perceived disaster-related stress and its relationship to family protective factors, prosocial behaviors, and emotional symptoms (anxiety, depression, anger, and psychosomatic complaints) following wildfire exposure.

Methods

Participants included 50 youth (M = 14.49 years old; SD = 3.61; 50 % female) who were residing in the family home at the time of the wildfire. Parent report was also provided. Hierarchical multiple regressions, controlling for age and gender, were used to predict prosocial behaviors and emotional symptoms, and test the moderating role of individual protective factors.

Results

Youth gender and perceived parental emotional support were significantly related to youth-reported emotional symptoms, but youth perceived fire-related stress was not. Emotional support significantly moderated the relationship between fire-related stress and parent report of youth prosocial behaviors. Specifically, under conditions of high fire stress, emotional support mitigated the relationship between stress and prosocial behaviors.

Conclusions

Results provide data to support the importance of incorporating positive outcome measures into disaster research studies and highlight the importance of investigating factors that lead to resilience in the aftermath of disasters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9490, USA

    Caryll M. Sprague, Maryam Kia-Keating & Erika Felix

  2. Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa, 105 Becker Communication Studies Building, Iowa City, IA, 52242-1498, USA

    Tamara Afifi & Walid Afifi

  3. National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101, USA

    Gilbert Reyes

  4. Big Sky Psychological Consortium, PLLC, 1648 Ellis St., Ste 302, Bozeman, MT, 59715, USA

    Caryll M. Sprague

Authors
  1. Caryll M. Sprague
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  2. Maryam Kia-Keating
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  3. Erika Felix
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  4. Tamara Afifi
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  5. Gilbert Reyes
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  6. Walid Afifi
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Correspondence to Maryam Kia-Keating.

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Sprague, C.M., Kia-Keating, M., Felix, E. et al. Youth Psychosocial Adjustment Following Wildfire: The Role of Family Resilience, Emotional Support, and Concrete Support. Child Youth Care Forum 44, 433–450 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-014-9285-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-014-9285-7

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