Coping with Hurricane Katrina:

1. Coping with Hurricane Katrina: Exposure and Outcomes among African American and European American Youth Ian K.Villalta1, Claudio D.Ortiz2, Armando A. Piña1, Ph.D., Brandon Barrios1, Sarah E. Watts3, Leslie K. Taylor3, Natalie M. Costa3, and Carl F. Weems3, Ph.D. 1Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 2Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 3Department of Psychology, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA. Summary of Findings. Overall, there were more similarities than differences between the disaster related experiences of European American and African American youth survivors of hurricane Katrina. One main difference was that significantly more African American youth reported having had their homes destroyed or damaged by the hurricane compared to European American youth. Another main difference was that African American youth reported significantly more instances of racial discrimination during the aftermath of the hurricane than European American youth. In terms of coping, while significant positive correlations were found for European American youth between several coping styles (avoidance, repression, minimization, and failed attempts to seek understanding) and poor mental health outcomes, for African American youth, only one coping style (optimism) was significantly positively related to poor mental health outcomes. Introduction. Exposure to the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina will have long term effects on the mental health of many survivors, especially children. Research indicates, however, that while some youth are impaired by disasters, others cope effectively. Thus, an enduring question is: why do some youth respond well to trauma while others do not? To help shed light on this question, the present study examined the interplay between exposure to hurricane Katrina (number of events, severity of events), racial discrimination (lifetime, hurricane-related), mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression), and coping styles (e.g., positivity, repression, avoidant actions) in European American and African American youth from New Orleans. Method Participants A total of 46 youth (M = 13.33 years, SD = 3.5): 28 boys (60.9%) and 18 girls (39.1%) participated in the study. About 67.4% were European American (n = 31) and 32.6% African American (n = 15). 26.8% (n = 11) of youth came from families with annual incomes of less than $21,000, for 31.8% (n = 13) incomes ranged from $21,000 to $51,000, and for 41.5% (n = 17) incomes were above $51,000 (see Table 1). Measures and Procedures Informed consent was obtained from the parent and assent was obtained from the child for both the pre and post Katrina assessments. Pre Katrina assessment took place in person. Similar to Asarnow et al. (1999), phone interviews were conducted to administer the post Katrina assessment. The pre Katrina assessment included administration of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS; Chorpita, Yim, Moffitt, Umemoto, & Francis, 2000) to assess DSM-IV symptoms of anxiety, depression, and overall mental health functioning. The post Katrina assessment included re-adminstration of the RCADS and similar to La Greca et al. (1998) we asked youth 20 questions to assess the type and severity of exposure to hurricane related events. Sample items include: During the storm did you see windows and doors braking?During the storm did you hear about tornados in your area? Youth also completed the Children’s Coping Strategies Checklist(CCSC; Program for Prevention Research, 1992) and parents completed a measure of discrimination(Williams, Yu, Jackson, & Anderson, 1997) that assessed the prevalence of discrimination experienced lifetime and related to hurricane Katrina. Discussion.Hurricane Katrina was physically and emotionally devastating, and it has been estimated as the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history (Bacon, 2005). The present study sought to examine the interplay between exposure to hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, including racial discrimination, mental health, and coping in European American and African American youth from New Orleans. Preliminary findings showed that African American families severely impacted by the storm were generally poorer and suffered a greater number of racial discrimination experiences in the aftermath of the storm compared to European American families. In terms of coping, post-Katrina symptoms in African American youth were found to be significantly associated with optimistic self-talk (e.g., I told myself things would get better, I told myself it would be okay, I told myself things would work out for the best, I told myself it would work itself out). For European American youth, post-Katrina symptoms were significantly related to their avoidance, repression, minimization, and failed attempts to seek understanding about events associated with the storm, including the storm itself. Taken together, coping findings suggest that perhaps the etiology of post-disaster symptoms in African American youth differs from that of European American youth. That is, African American youth seem to engage in different coping strategies to manage negative life events compared to European American youth. These findings are important because they suggest that researchers and practitioners might need to re-conceptualize traditional coping models to better understand the etiology of post traumatic stress reactions in African American youth survivors of disasters. Furthermore, it might be the case that social support and religiosity (or faith) need to be better integrated into coping models. These factors were not examined in the present study, but in hindsight are likely candidates for differences. In fact, it has been suggested that social support and religiosity (or faith) are related to resilient mental health outcomes among African Americans (Constantine, Alleyne, Caldwell, McRae, & Suzuki, 2005; Chapman & Mullis, 2000; Hill, Levermore, Twaite, & Jones, 1996). An important future research undertaking would be to determine whether and why for African American youth survivors of natural disasters, using social support is related to adaptive posttraumatic stress reactions whereas optimistic self-statements are related to maladaptive posttraumatic stress reactions. As Table 2 shows, there were several significant correlations found for European American children between coping strategies (repression, minimize, avoidance, seeking understanding) and poor mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression, poor overall functioning). Conversely, for African American youth, only one coping strategy (optimism) was significantly related to poor mental health outcomes. There were no significant negative correlations between poor mental health and coping strategies used in either group. Results.As shown in Table 1, few significant differences emerged between the ethnic groups. The main significant differences were that: (1) significantly more African American youth were residing in single parent homes compared to European American youth [χ2 (6) = 18.77, p = .005], (2) significantly more African American youth were residing in homes with lower family incomes than European American youth [χ2 (4) = 15.58, p = .004], (3) a significantly higher percentage of African American youth reported losing their home or part of it because of hurricane Katrina [χ2 (1) = 9.98, p = .002], (4) the number of racial discrimination events was significantly higher among African American families than European American families in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina [t (35) = 3.90, p < .001]. This research was made possible in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH067572) awarded to Carl F. Weems, a grant from the Institute for Social Science Research to Armando A. Piña and Carl F. Weems, and a fellowship awarded to Ian K. Villalta by the SDSU Ronald E. McNair Program.