2-147 - Family Processes, Tornado-Related Trauma Exposure and Child Adjustment: Multi-Method Perspectives of Risk and Resilience

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Natural disasters involve exposure to acute traumatic events, but may also result in families facing long-term stressors related to loss, disruption, and rebuilding. Caregivers vary in their availability to help children and adolescents cope with disaster-related thoughts and feelings, and adolescents may distance themselves from emotionally overwhelmed caregivers (Felix, You, Vernberg, & Canino, 2013). Consistent support from caregivers may help youth cope in the aftermath of disaster and contribute to successful processing of trauma-related reactions.
Conceptual models for understanding disaster effects emphasize both pre- and post-disaster variables. Exposure experiences often vary considerably within a disaster-affected communities, and research emphasizes careful measurement of disaster exposure to understand how the adjustment of children with comparable levels of risk (i.e., disaster exposure) may be differentially affected due to personal and contextual characteristics, including qualities of social relationships and resources (Weems & Graham, 2014; Masten & Narayan, 2012).
This symposium includes three presentations on family/parenting practices that potentially affect child/adolescent adjustment following tornado exposure. The first provides a “big picture” prospective examination of pre-disaster parenting processes as moderators of PTSD symptom trajectories over 4 years post-tornado. The second and third presentations examine parent-child and individual tornado recollections to assess variations in caregivers’ emotion socialization and cognitive process-related language, and relate these to indicators of child/adolescent adjustment. Together, these presentations provide multiple perspectives on connections among tornado exposure, family processes, and child/adolescent adjustment.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Eric M. Vernberg, University of Kansas

Discussant

• Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, University of Minnesota

Individual Presentations

• Inconsistent Parenting Moderates how Tornado-Related Trauma Predicts Trajectories of PTSD Symptoms Across Four Years - Presenting Author: Eric M. Vernberg, University of Kansas; Kristina McDonald, University of Alabama; John E. Lochman, The University of Alabama; Matthew A. Jarrett, University of Alabama; Nicole Powell, University of Alabama; Kathleen I Diaz, University of Kansas; Francesca Kassing, The University of Alabama; Bridget O'Connor Cho, Uniersity of Kansas

• Measuring Caregiver Emotion Socialization Constructs in Parent-Adolescent Conversations about a Devastating Tornado - Presenting Author: Michelle Lynn Hendrickson, University of Kansas; Eric M. Vernberg, University of Kansas; John E. Lochman, The University of Alabama

• Discovering Links between Parent-Child Talk About Tornado-Related Experiences and Child Posttraumatic Stress - Presenting Author: Erin Porter Hambrick, University of Missouri-Kansas City; Bridget O'Connor Cho, Uniersity of Kansas; Thomas Brawner, The Pennsylvania State University; Eric M. Vernberg, University of Kansas