Journey of Hope: A school-based intervention for children who have experienced a natural disaster

Background.  Natural disasters can have a significant impact a child’s social and emotional well-being.  Symptoms children may exhibit range from acute stress to longer term post-traumatic stress. This research evaluated a post-disaster mental school-based intervention, the Journey of Hope, which attempts to mitigate post-disaster psychological consequences through increasing psycho-educational knowledge and coping skills with children.

Methods Through a purposive random sampling process a selection of 134 youth between the ages of 8-10 were selected to participate in the study.  The sample included N=52 in the experimental group and N=48 in the comparison group.  The dependent variables included the Youth Coping Inventory (YCI), the Communities that Cares (CTC), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).  A Hierarchal Linear Model (HLM) was used to evaluate the overall effects of the experimental and control group to understand the Time (pre vs. post-test) x Response (scores on quantitative measures) x Group (experimental vs.comparison).

Results. Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and comparison groups on the YCI self-report measure, pro-social behavior sub-scale, and disciplinary referrals. No significant differences were, observed on the teacher report of overall emotional symptoms measured by the SDQ, however trended in the hypothesized direction.

Conclusions. The Journey of Hope intervention is a general model that can be universally implemented after a disaster. This study was the first step to evaluating the impact of the intervention and revealed promising findings on teacher report measures.  Future studies would help researchers further assess the impact of the intervention.