142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

312242
Youth and Disaster Recovery: The Power of Narrative, Hope and Opportunity

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

David M. Abramson, PhD MPH , National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University, New York, NY
Lori Peek, PhD , Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Jaishree Beedasy, PhD , National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University, NY, NY
Promoting resilience among children and youth who have been exposed to disaster has generally been regarded in one of two ways: (1) preventing psychopathology and other poor physical, cognitive, or academic outcomes associated with the stressors of disasters, and (2) promoting adaptation strategies and enhanced self-efficacy.  There is a growing appreciation among scholars and practitioners that children and youth are not simply victims or thoroughly dependent and vulnerable populations, but that they may be agents of their own and others’ recovery.  This is particularly true for adolescents and those on the cusp of young adulthood.  This presentation will review emerging trends in the scholarly literature and highlight several sentinel youth-run or youth-empowered projects that illustrate positive promotive and adaptation-focused strategies.  In particular, the presentation will focus on the research among Gulf Coast youth exposed to Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that gave rise to the SHOREline youth-empowerment project in five Gulf Coast high schools.  The project will be contrasted with that of a narrative project for youth in Joplin, Missouri, who had been exposed to a devastating EF-5 tornado in May 2011 that destroyed one-quarter of their town’s housing, six of ten school buildings, and killed over 130 people including children.  Both the Gulf Coast and Joplin cases have sought to enhance pro-social behavior among disaster-exposed youth.  The presentation will consider evaluation and theoretical frameworks for assessing the impact of these promotive strategies on children and youth’s post-disaster recovery.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Identify positive strategies for facilitating post-disaster recovery among youth; Describe new approaches to youth resilience programming

Keyword(s): Youth, Disasters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal investigator of several research projects from which this presentation is drawn, including a foundation-funded effort and an NIEHS-funded study.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.