Inequalities Over Time: Mobility and the Intersecting Dimensions of Post-Katrina Mental Health Outcomes

• In Event: 057 - Regular Session. Disaster

Abstract

This paper uses the Gulf Coast Child and Family Health (G-CAFH) Study to examine the long-term mental health patterns of individuals highly affected by Hurricane Katrina. This paper provides an analysis of longitudinal data that expands on previous disaster studies that focus only on cross-sectional data. A main contribution of this paper is to provide a descriptive understanding of mobility post-Katrina, including an explanation of who moved and how often, and to determine whether certain groups were more likely to move than others. Secondly, it builds on these descriptives by considering the effect that mobility has on mental health over time. I consider how mobility rates differ depending on various social characteristics, and how such relationships can reproduce and reinforce inequalities during the recovery process. Results demonstrate that disasters often work to sustain inequalities that existed prior to the event and that there is a significant relationship between mental health distress and high rates of mobility.

Author

• Alexis A. Merdjanoff, New York University