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Objective: To explore the extent to which disasters may be a source of injury and disability in community populations, we examined the prevalence and short-term consequences of disaster-related illness and injury for distress, disability, and perceived needs for care. Design: A random population survey was conducted 2-6 months after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Bay on September 13, 2008. Participants: The sample was composed of 658 adults representative of Galveston and Chambers Counties, Texas. Results: The prevalences of personal injury (4%) and household illness (16%) indicated that approximately 7,700 adults in the two-county area were injured, and another 31,500 adults experienced household-level illness. Risk for injury/illness increased with area damage and decreased with evacuation. In bivariate tests, injury or illness or both were related to all outcome measures. In multivariate analyses that controlled for co-occurring stressors representing trauma, loss, adversities, and community effects, injury or illness or both were associated with global stress, posttraumatic stress, dysfunction, days of disability, and perceived needs for care, but not with depression or anxiety. Conclusions: The associations of injury with distress and disability suggest that community programs should reach out to injured persons for early mental health and functional assessments and, where indicated, intervene in ways that reduce further disability and need for complex rehabilitative services. The results also point to the potential effectiveness of evacuation incentives with regard to the prevention of disaster-related injury and disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present and illustrate cognitive-behavioral therapy for postdisaster distress. The treatment is for individuals who show more than normal transient stress after disaster and functions as an intermediate step between traditional crisis counseling and longer-term mental health treatments. Thus, it is one part of a larger mental health disaster response and is designed to be implemented no sooner than 60 days post disaster. A clinical case demonstrates its process and technique in a community practice setting. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined predictors of parenting stress and competence within a sample of 43 immigrant Latino couples, in which some of the men had perpetrated abuse against their partners. It was hypothesized that more physical and psychological abuse perpetrated by men against their partners would be associated with higher parenting stress and lower parenting competence for fathers and mothers. Results indicated that parenting stress and competence for fathers and mothers were not uniform. Father's parenting stress was not related to the predictor variables, whereas mother's parenting stress was related only to physical abuse. Father's parenting competence was related to both physical and psychological abuse whereas mother's parenting competence was not related to the predictor variables. When comparing Latino fathers and Latina mothers, there were differences in parenting stress, with fathers experiencing less, but no differences in parenting competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If gender differences in posttraumatic stress disorder follow from culturally-defined roles and rules, they should be greater in societies that foster traditional views of masculinity and femininity than in societies that adhere to these traditions less rigidly. Data were collected 6 months after Hurricanes Paulina (Acapulco; N = 200) and Andrew (Miami; White n = 135; Black n = 135). In regression analyses predicting scores on the Revised Civilian Mississippi Scale, Sex × Cultural Group interactions emerged for the total scale and for subscales of Intrusion, Avoidance, and Remorse. Only a sex main effect (women higher) emerged for Arousal. Overall, the results indicated that Mexican culture amplified, whereas African American culture attenuated, differences in the posttraumatic stress of male and female disaster victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors evaluated the impact of receiving social support on subsequent levels of perceived social support and psychological distress in 2 independent samples of victims of severe natural disasters: Hurricane Hugo (n = 498) and Hurricane Andrew (n = 404). A social support deterioration deterrence model was proposed that stipulated that postdisaster mobilization of received support counteracts the deterioration in expectations of support often experienced by victims of major life events. LISREL analyses of data collected 12 and 24 months after Hugo and 6 and 28 months after Andrew provided strong evidence for the hypothesized model: Perceived support mediated the long-term effects on distress of both scope of disaster exposure and postdisaster received support. Theoretical and application issues of social support are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This prospective longitudinal study examined stress-mediating potentials of 3 types of social support: social embeddedness, perceived support from nonkin, and perceived support from kin. As participants in a statewide panel study, 222 older adults were interviewed once before and twice after a severe flood. It was hypothesized that disaster exposure (stress) would influence depression directly and indirectly, through deterioration of social support. LISREL analyses indicated that postdisaster declines in social embeddedness and nonkin support mediated the immediate and delayed impact of disaster stress. No evidence was found for the mediational role of kin support. Findings are in accord with conceptualizations of social support as an entity reflecting dynamic transactions among individuals, their social networks, and environmental pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the distress levels of 150 family members of homicide victims, as well as how pre-event, peri-event, and postevent variables were related to distress. Distress levels were very high, with 26% of the sample reporting clinical distress. Because it was not possible to say if this distress resulted from the homicide itself or from the fact that people who lose family members to homicide generally have lives rooted in stressful contexts, we compared the homicide sample to two sociodemographically comparable groups of 108 other trauma victims and 119 nonvictims selected from a larger epidemiological dataset. Homicide survivors were significantly more distressed than either group, suggesting that loss of a family member to homicide has definite clinical implications. Although event-related variables were somewhat predictive of distress, pre-event and postevent variables selected for this study had greater predictive utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the mediating roles of various domains of chronic stress such as marital, parental, filial, financial, occupational, ecological, and physical. More specifically, the study attempts to explore the mechanism through which acute disaster stress such as injury, life threat, property damage or loss may produce lasting psychological distress such as depression, anxiety, somatization, and hostility. In the views of the authors, the stress-distress relation is reciprocal in nature, with distress causing stress, as well as the reverse. The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that chronic stress mediates the long-term effects of acute disaster stress on psychological distress. The main effects of loss, though limited in strength, were completely explained by victims' higher financial, marital, filial, and physical stress. The findings suggest that injury has the strongest and most pervasive effects. Overall, threat and injury has more adverse or lasting consequences than material loss.

A short screening instrument for detecting the occurrence and impact of traumatic events is presented. It is proposed that a relevant event population for assessing exposure to traumatic events comprises ‘violent encounters with nature, technology, or humankind’ and that loss, scope, threat, blame, familiarity, and post-traumatic stress are the dimensions of the experience that are most critical to assess. It is estimated that 8% of the U.S. adult population will experience one or more of the selected events within a year's time. Potential uses and contributions of the instrument are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1,402 older adults were interviewed twice with a six month interval. The direct, indirect, and interactive relationships of resources, life events, global stress, and depression were examined using multiple regression procedures to isolate the unique contributions of six hypothesized functions of resources: (1) stronger resources did not reduce undesirable events; (2) stronger resources did reduce the degree to which one experienced global stress: (3) stronger resources reduced depressive symptoms; (4) strong resource persons had less global stress than weak resource persons at low levels of events, but this advantage disappeared as level of events increased (opposite of prediction); (5) the traditional buffer hypothesis was not supported; the advantage of strong resource persons over weak resource persons held at all levels of events; (6) strong resource persons had less change in depression than weak resource persons only at the higher levels of global stress. This form followed the buffer effect previously attributed to events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]