Abstract
Children and youth are among the most vulnerable to the devastating effects of disaster due to the physical, cognitive, and social factors related to their developmental life stage. Yet children and youth also have the capacity to be resilient and act as powerful catalysts for change in their own lives and wider communities following disaster. Specific factors that contribute to resilience in children and youth, however, remain relatively unexplored. This article examines factors associated with high levels of resilience in 100 children and youth aged 5- to 18-years old who experienced the 2016 Fort McMurray, Alberta wildfire. A mixed-methods design was employed combining quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data was obtained from the Children and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28) which measured individual, caregiver, and context factors influencing resilience processes among the participants. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews to gain further insight into the disaster experiences of children and youth. Quantitative findings reveal higher than average levels of resilience among the participants compared to normative scores. Qualitative findings suggest high levels of resilience were associated with both caregiver factors (specifically physical caregiving), and individual factors (primarily peer support). We discuss how physical caregiving and peer support during and after the wildfire helped mitigate the negative effects of disaster, thus bolstering children and youth's resilience. Implications for understanding the specific social-ecological factors that facilitate and support resiliency processes and overall recovery of children and youth following disaster are also discussed.
Highlights
Resilience among children and youth following traumatic life events is increasingly being examined in various disciplinary fields, including psychiatry, social work, psychology, and sociology
The findings reveal that the children and youth participants who experienced the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire had higher than average levels of resilience
Given that the CYRM subscale scores indicated that high levels of resilience among child/youth participants was associated with both caregiver factors, and individual factors, we focus on themes and patterns described by the child/youth participants in relation to these two factors
Summary
Resilience among children and youth following traumatic life events is increasingly being examined in various disciplinary fields, including psychiatry, social work, psychology, and sociology. Experiencing a natural disaster produces significant trauma for children and youth given the wide range of stressors involved, including “threat to one’s own life and physical integrity, exposure to death and dying, bereavement, profound loss, social and community disruption, and ongoing hardship” [2]. Due to their developmental life stage, dependence on adults, and limited access to child/youth-centered resources post-disaster, children and youth often are vulnerable to the devastating effects of disaster [3]. Children and youth often experience increased behavioral problems, including insomnia, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [2, 4,5,6,7,8,9]
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