Controversy And Consensus In Disaster Mental Health Research
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Date
2000
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
Controversies regarding the mental health consequences of disasters are rooted both in
disciplinary orientations and in the widely varied research strategies that have been employed in
disaster mental health studies. However, despite a history of dissensus, there are also key issues
on which researchers agree. Disasters constitute stressful and traumatic experiences. However,
vulnerability to such experiences, as well as to more chronic stressors, is socially structured,
reflecting the influence of socioeconomic status and other axes of stratification, including gender,
race, and ethnicity. Disaster events differ in the extent to which they generate stress for victims. A
holistic perspective on disaster mental health would take into account not only disaster event
characteristics, but also social-systemic sources of both acute and chronic stress, secondary and
cumulative stressors, and victims’ internal and external coping capacities.
Description
Keywords
Disciplinary Orientations, Mental Health Research, stress, coping