Some factors in the emotional reaction of children to disaster.

Abstract

On Saturday, December 5, 1953, at about 5:35 p.m., a tornado hit Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was over in about io minutes, but had caused considerable damage and loss of life. A motion picture theatre, filled with children attending a Saturday afternoon movie, was particularly affected. For this reason, the Committee on Disaster Studies of the National Research Council felt that an unusual opportunity existed to study selectively the effects of the disaster experience on children in the community. The National Institute of Mental Health was invited to participate in the study, and to supply professional personnel. One week after the tornado had struck, Bloch and Silber were in Vicksburg, where they spent 4 days interviewing parents, children, pediatricians, school officials, teachers, and community leaders. Arrangements were made at that time for cooperation to test, with a more rigorous design, certain specific hypotheses concerning emotional disturbance in children, as a response to the tornado. After the collection of the data, the third author, Perry, joined the project for the systematic study of the data. This paper covers 2 kinds of observations. In the first section we present the design as conceived and carried out and the resulting findings. The second section describes certain over-all impressions growing out of the research experience.