Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:1010-1014
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
Changes in children's behavior after a natural disaster
JD Burke Jr, JF Borus, BJ Burns, KH Millstein and MC Beasley
Five months after a severe winter storm, a survey of children whose
behavior had been assessed by means of a parent rating scale during a Head
Start program 6 months before the disaster showed that some
problem-behavior scores had increased significantly. The subgroups of
children at higher risk were boys, whose Anxiety scale scores increased,
and children accepted for Head Start only because their parents said they
had special needs, whose Aggressive Conduct scale scores increased. For the
entire group of children, school behavior improved. The findings support
previous impressions that parents deny their children's problems after a
natural disaster.
