Adversity and Resilience after Hurricane Katrina

描述(申请人提供)：这个项目的目的是调查一群来自新奥尔良的低收入父母如何应对卡特里娜飓风的影响，他们中的大多数是非洲裔单身妇女。我们样本中的1019名低收入父母是一项随机干预的一部分，该干预始于卡特里娜飓风之前，该干预为随机选择的治疗小组的成员提供学费援助和当地社区大学的学术建议。由于他们参与了这项研究，我们掌握了飓风前有关治疗组和对照组成员的健康、社会网络和经济状况的信息。我们已经进行了一次飓风后的后续调查和一系列定性访谈，并建议在飓风三周年后不久收集另一波数据。我们的重点将是确定促进这一群体中的复原力和脆弱性的因素。我们将研究飓风前的资源和能力如何影响成功适应重大生活创伤的能力，包括心理和身体健康、社会网络和经济资源。我们将研究影响飓风过后三年期间衡量的一系列广泛结果的因素，包括心理困扰、创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)症状、创伤暴露以及重新建立社会网络和恢复就业和教育活动。我们还将研究这些家庭中的儿童如何应对飓风的影响。最后，我们将检查那些在飓风前接受额外教育的治疗组是否比对照组经历了更好的飓风后结果。这项研究将有助于我们集体了解这场可能是美国经历过的最严重自然灾害的后果。定量和定性分析将提供经验证据，说明灾害对弱势群体--低收入父母及其子女--的健康、社会和经济状况的影响。我们的研究结果将与参与灾害规划的政策制定者和治疗那些经历过与灾害相关的创伤的实践者都相关。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project is to examine how a group of low-income parents from New Orleans most of whom are single African American women have coped with the effects of Hurricane Katrina. The 1,019 low-income parents in our sample are part of a randomized intervention, started before Hurricane Katrina that provided members of a randomly-selected treatment group with tuition assistance and academic advising at local community colleges. Because of their participation in this study, we have pre- hurricane information on the health, social networks, and economic status of members of the treatment and control groups. We have already conducted one post-hurricane follow-up survey and set of qualitative interviews, and propose to collect another wave of data shortly after the three-year anniversary of the hurricane. Our focus will be on identifying factors that promote resilience and heighten vulnerability within this group. We will study how pre-hurricane resources and capacities defined to include mental and physical health, social networks, and economic resources affect the ability to successfully adjust to a major life trauma. We will study the factors that influence a broad set of outcomes measured over a three-year period following the hurricane, including psychological distress, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma exposure, and the re-establishment of social networks and resumption of employment and educational activities. We will also examine how the children in these families are coping with the effects of the hurricane. Finally, we will examine whether those in the treatment group, who gained additional education prior to the hurricane, experience better post-hurricane outcomes than those in the control group. This study will contribute to our collective knowledge of the consequences of what may be the worst natural disaster experienced in the United States. The quantitative and qualitative analyses will provide empirical evidence on the effects of the disaster on the health, social and economic status of a vulnerable segment of the population: low income parents and their children. The findings of our research will be relevant to both policy-makers involved in disaster planning, and well as practitioners who treat those who have experienced disaster-related trauma.