儿童与自然灾害

在飓风肆虐一个社区之后, its effects on kids can linger long after the floodwaters recede. Disasters threaten children’s long-term mental and physical health as well as their academic success, 黎贝蒂说, an associate professor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. “Children are one the most vulnerable groups when exposed to disasters,”她说。. “They aren’t just mini adults—the meaning of a big life event is very different in your forties than it is when you’re 5.”

赖的电子游戏正规平台之一, 例如, 在艾克飓风过后八个月, more than 40 percent of children reported ongoing sleep problems. Another of her research projects linked Ike with a lack of activity among kids. 在第三项电子游戏正规平台中, she found that students experienced post-traumatic stress and elevated anxiety after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, 导致在学校出现问题的可能性增加. “The good news is that many children are resilient after disaster events, 我们确实有很好的治疗方法,赖说. “But a lot of those treatments are very intensive and expensive. We need a plan for triaging and understanding which children are highest-risk so we can intervene early.”

Witnessing the struggles of kids is what inspired Lai to study child psychology. 21世纪初，我在纽约市当老师, she was struck by how problems outside of the classroom seemed to affect students’ academic outcomes. 赖正在攻读博士学位.D. at the University of Miami when, in 2008, Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, Texas. “I wanted to understand how we could help children in a community recover from an event like that,”她说。. 这正是她现在在不列颠哥伦比亚省所做的. Her Lai Lab researches how children and families recover not only from natural disasters, but also from other traumatic events such as pandemics and war.

Most previous work on this topic has focused on the “average” child. But Lai’s research emphasizes that not all children are the same. 她在德克萨斯州进行的一项电子游戏正规平台, 例如, found that Hurricane Ike affected academic functioning more negatively in lower-income public schools. That is why she’s developing statistical models that researchers can use to understand which children are most vulnerable to the lingering effects of a disaster, and how to intervene before their symptoms become long-lasting. Her most recent study identified “symptom trajectories” among youth exposed to major hurricanes, 精确定位特征，比如年龄, 种族, and gender—that predispose children to more serious forms of chronic post-traumatic stress.

For the most vulnerable kids, early intervention is key. That includes implementing trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy quickly after a disaster. It also involves preventive measures, such as increasing the number of school counselors. While the American School Counseling Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, 赖说, 目前只有两个州符合这一比例. And as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of disasters, 做好准备比以往任何时候都更重要. “Many children will experience at least one potentially traumatic event in their lifetime,赖说. “We need to better prepare communities and families before these events that we know are going to happen.”