IMPACT OF DISASTER ON CHILDREN--DIOXIN AND FLOOD

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This project will examine the psychosocial and psychiatric effects of disaster on children and their parents by conducting a controlled follow-up study of families with children, ages 3-18 years of age, from three communities which experienced severe flooding during late 1982 and Spring 1983. Approximately 150 families (200 children) will be interviewed including: 70 families from Times Beach, a confirmed dioxin site; 40 families from Buscher Bottoms, a suspected dioxin site to be tested by the EPA in March or April 1984; and 40 families from Montgomery Subdivision, a neighboring area similarly flooded but without the threat of dioxin. A pilot study is currently in progress collecting baseline data from parents and children in both Buscher Bottoms and Montgomery Subdivision prior to the residents' awareness of suspected dioxin and involving re-interviews with residents one month after EPA test results are announced. Parents in Times Beach are presently being interviewed to assess consequences of the double disaster one year later for themselves and their families. We propose to interview for a third time the families from the pilot study and to add children from Times Beach whose parents were previously studied. Information from the pilot study will provide psychiatric status prior to awareness of the threat of dioxin as well as shortly after the test results are announced, thus allowing us to measure the effect of exposure on psychiatric symptoms. The results of this study will advance the methodology of including children in studies of catastrophic events and will increase knowledge regarding the impact of disaster. It will also be possible to identify pre-existing risk factors that augment or reduce the impact of disaster. This information will assist in identification of those in need of services and in planning future services.