Children's Psychological Reactions to Wildfires: a Review of Recent Literature.
Children
Disaster
Mental health
Psychological reactions
Resilience
Wildfire
Journal
Current psychiatry reports
ISSN: 1535-1645
Titre abrégé: Curr Psychiatry Rep
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 100888960
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Nov 2023
Nov 2023
Historique:
accepted:
11
09
2023
medline:
17
11
2023
pubmed:
18
10
2023
entrez:
18
10
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
This review aims to synthesize currently available literature regarding the impact of wildfire on mental health, specifically the psychological reactions of children to wildfires. The information gathered from this review will help health experts understand and address the mental health needs of children during wildfire disasters and may serve as a base for future studies to evaluate evidence-based public health responses to mitigate adverse outcomes. The results identified post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, stress, alcohol/substance misuse, hopelessness, low resilience, reduced quality of life, and self-esteem as the psychological conditions manifesting in children and adolescent post-wildfire disaster. PTSD was the most evaluated psychological reaction in the participants (7 out of eight studies). This review highlights that deleterious mental health effects, such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, and suicidality, can persist in children for years post-wildfire disaster. Factors such as gender, direct exposure to the wildfire, re-traumatization, and resilience informed or ameliorated the severity of the impact of wildfire on children and adolescents. Our findings further emphasize the need for multi-year funding and programs to support children and adolescents' mental health, including children with disabilities in the communities that have experienced wildfire disasters.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37851204
doi: 10.1007/s11920-023-01451-7
pii: 10.1007/s11920-023-01451-7
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Review
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
603-616Informations de copyright
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
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