How Hurricane Katrina Affected Children

Two studies analyzed the effects that hurricane Katrina had on teenagers living in New Orleans, three years later. The first one focused on what helped them overcome the trauma and the second one looked at the differences between consequences on boys and girls.

Researchers at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and the St. Bernard Parish Public Schools, conducted a study on recovery patterns of children having lived in school districts damaged by the hurricane. They studied 400 elementary and high-school children, mostly White, aged 9 to 18 years, between 2005 and 2008.

Conclusions were that general trauma symptoms like depression, nervousness, difficulties in concentration and sleeping and sadness are decreasing, and 45 percent of children became stress resistant and have no long-term psychological problems. Still, about a quarter of them continue to be traumatized, even three years later. The majority of individuals reported to have these issues are girls that are younger, that have family or school problems and have already seen a psychologist.

The psychological improvement in most children is believed to be a consequence of fast rebuilt schools and supportive interactions between classmates. This helped teenagers reduce their trauma level and restart building a normal life in supportive environments.

The second study was led by scientists at the University of Missouri and The Pennsylvania State University, and analyzed overall trauma depending on gender. Males and females are known to respond differently to stress, so researchers observed 60 adolescents that have been relocated after the hurricane and 50 teenagers from another area, unaffected by it. Observation subjects were aged 12 to 19 years, mostly African American, from low-income families.

The comparison was based of factors like salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase (two hormone markers of stress regulation) and also depression and aggression manifestations. The study concluded that teens affected by Katrina, presented different types of behavioral stress that adolescents that had not lived the incident, and that there was also a difference of psychological consequences depending on gender. Boys having survived the hurricane were more confident and less aggressive and girls were more depressed.

These two studies appear in the July/August 2010 issue of the journal Child Development, and are a big step forward in our understanding of the stress management after a trauma.