The Disruptive, Devastating, Deviating Impact of Disasters through Agnew’s GST

• In Event: Solutions at the Intersection of Trauma, Mental Health, and Policy

Abstract

Disasters are exogenous shocks that not only cause devastation and loss of life but also disruptions to society, negatively impacting personal wellbeing and social environments (Kaniasty & Norris, 1993; Frailing & Harper, 2017). This paper explores the types of strains and strain responses individuals experience during disasters, to gain insights that can help support long-term recovery in post-disaster contexts. Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) explains the etiology and process of how individuals perceive disruptions, experience emotions, and respond cognitively, behaviourally, and emotionally to these disruptions and emotions. This paper is an exploratory, qualitative study of the COVID-19 pandemic, through the theoretical lenses of Agnew’s GST. I conducted online semi-structured interviews with twenty-two interviewees from Chelmer-Graceville, Tennyson, and Goodna suburbs in South-East Queensland. I then conducted a reflexive thematic analysis on these interview transcripts. Preliminary themes include “there’s an underlying pandemic that hasn’t been addressed” and “Multiple strains interact and increase magnitude of strains” as types of strains that were expressed by participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings contribute insights for anticipated strains and the experience of multiple strains for individuals, which may not necessarily be present on a surface level, but can impact and potentially increase maladaptive coping.

Author

• Suaditya C Mohan, The University of Queensland