Family functioning in the aftermath of a natural disaster

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Brett M McDermott¹  Vanessa E Cobham² 

[1] Kids in Mind Research: The Mater Center for Service Research in Mental Health, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;Mater Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;Kids in Mind Research: The Mater Center for Service Research in Mental Health, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;Mater Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;

关键词: Family Functioning;    Ptsd Symptom;    Mental Health Symptom;    Family Dysfunction;    Family Assessment Device;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-12-55

 received in 2011-09-22, accepted in 2012-05-31,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIncreased understanding of the complex determinants of adverse child mental health outcomes following acute stress such as natural disasters has led to a resurgence of interest in the role of parent psychopathology and parenting. The authors investigated whether family functioning in the post-disaster environment would be impaired relative to a non-exposed sample and potential correlates with family functioning such as disaster-related exposure and child posttraumatic mental health symptoms.MethodsThree months after a category 5 tropical cyclone that impacted north Queensland Australia, school-based screening was undertaken to case identify children who may benefit from a mental health intervention. Along with obtaining informed consent, parents completed a measure of family functioning.ResultsOf 145 families of children aged 8 to 12 years, 28.3% met criteria for dysfunction on the Family Adjustment Device, double the frequency in a community sample. The dysfunction group was significantly more likely to have experienced more internalising (anxiety/depression) symptoms. However, in an adjusted logistic regression model this group were not more likely to have elevated disaster-related exposure nor did children in these families validate more PTSD symptoms.ConclusionsThe implications of post-disaster discordant family functioning and possible different causal pathways for depressive and PTSD-related symptomatic responses to traumatic events are discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© McDermott and Cobham; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012