Predicting mothers' reports of children's mental health three years after Hurricane Katrina

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2012.09.002Get rights and content

Abstract

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 3, respectively). Mothers rated their children's behavior problems at Time 3 only (n = 251 children; 53.0% male; mean age: 10.19 years, SD = 1.68 years). A path analytic model indicated that hurricane-related stressors were associated with increased maternal psychological distress and school mobility in the first post-disaster year, which were associated with higher child internalizing and externalizing symptoms three years post-disaster. Mediation analysis indicated that hurricane-related stressors were associated with child symptoms indirectly, through their impact on maternal psychological distress. Findings underscore the importance of interventions that boost maternal and child mental health and support children through post-disaster school transitions.

Highlights

► Mothers were surveyed one year prior to Hurricane Katrina, and one and three years after. ► A model linking hurricane-related stressors to child behavior problems was tested. ► Hurricane-related stressors predicted increases in maternal psychological distress. ► Stressors were associated with increased school mobility post-disaster. ► School mobility and increased maternal distress predicted child behavior problems.

Section snippets

Impact of Hurricane Katrina on children's psychological functioning

Children exposed to Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters are at increased risk for short and long-term psychological distress, including symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress (PTS), separation anxiety, and oppositionality (e.g., Abramson et al., 2010, La Greca et al., 2010, Scheeringa and Zeanah, 2008). According to several studies (e.g., McLaughlin et al., 2010, Weems et al., 2010), elevated levels of child psychological distress (e.g., symptoms of PTS and emotional

Procedure

Institutional Review Boards from MDRC and the principal investigators' universities (Harvard University, Princeton University, and University of Massachusetts Boston) approved the study. Participants were initially part of a larger study examining whether performance-based scholarships to attend community college affected the academic achievement, health, and well being of low-income parents (Richburg-Hayes et al., 2009). To be eligible for the study, students had to be between the ages of 18

Descriptive statistics

Prior to path analysis, Pearson correlations were computed with the disaggregated dataset for a preliminary exploration of relationships between the variables (Table 2). Consistent with our hypotheses, the number of hurricane-related stressors was significantly and positively correlated with Time 2 maternal psychological distress and schools attended, which in turn were significantly and positively correlated with child internalizing and externalizing symptoms (all p < .05). A paired-samples t

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the psychological functioning of elementary school aged children (5–10 years old) of low-income mothers who were exposed to the storm, 53.8% of whom were also exposed to Hurricane Rita. Mothers, who were initially part of a community college intervention study, provided data on their own psychological functioning both prior to and a year after the hurricanes, their exposure to hurricane-related stressors, and their

Acknowledgments

The study was funded by NIH grant R01HD046162, and the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University. We thank Thomas Brock, MDRC, Christina Paxson, Elizabeth Fussell, and Mary Waters.

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