Resilience in Acehnese Teenagers Post Earthquake Disaster

Abstract

After the earthquake and tsunami in 2004, Aceh Province experienced another earthquake of 6.5 Richter scale hitting Bireuen, Pidie Jaya, and Pidie Districts in December 2016. The disaster had caused some psychological problems in the teenagers living in several boarding schools in these regions. To deal with this, measures should be taken to bring the teenagers’ mental condition back to normal with an effort known as resilience. This study concerned on the resilience of the teenagers studying in the boarding schools of the 2016 earthquake affected areas. The study aimed to investigate the teenagers’ responses who, at the time of the disaster, lived separatedly from the family. The responses could help provided a post-disaster description of resilience in the teenagers. The population of the study included all students at Samalanga Traditional Islamic Boarding School in Bireuen District, Aceh Province. The sample consisted of 301 respondents obtained by using the simple random sampling technique. Data were collected by disseminating the questionnaires. The data were then analyzed by using univariate analysis. The results revealed that the resilience of the teenagers at Samalanga Boarding School was high, reaching 99% (298 people). It is expected that the boarding school continue to optimize their psychological support towards the teenagers by providing the Adolescent Health Care Service and also the Student Health Unit programs. Keywords: earthquake, resilience, youth, Islamic boarding school