When floods, fires or pandemics strike, it’s common for children to experience emotional and behavioural difficulties. They may have trouble getting to sleep, wake in the night, and experience bad dreams or night terrors, Sharleen Keleher and Dr Andrea Baldwin write.
Following a disruptive event, they may eat more than usual, or not feel like eating. Many children find it harder to separate from their parents. Some children are more irritable than usual and have more tantrums, while others may become withdrawn and emotionally flat.
A common issue is temporarily delayed development, with some children seeming to regress or ‘go backwards’ in previously acquired skills like walking, toileting or language.
If children don’t get support to adjust to changes the event has brought, and to process their big feelings, the impacts can be long-lasting. We know from the Beyond Bushfires report that children separated from their parents during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires are still on average demonstrating significantly lower academic scores, over 10 years on, than their peers who didn’t experience separation.
Children growing up today are about seven times more likely to be exposed to a natural disaster than their grandparents’ generation. More frequent and severe natural disasters mean more communities are experiencing cumulative impacts from successive disasters.
The effects of natural disasters on communities are compounded when other major disruptive events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, occur at the same time.
Children who have experienced adverse childhood events (ACEs) such as sexual abuse, family violence or the loss of a parent may be more at risk for negative mental health outcomes following a natural disaster.
COVID-19 unmasked
The COVID-19 Unmasked Young Child survey was completed by caregivers of young children (1-5 years) on four occasions between May 2020-May 2021. Key findings of this study include:
- Most young children experienced some emotional and/or behavioural disruption, with those experiencing longer periods in lockdown showing more disruption
- 30 per cent of young children experienced moderate to severe anxiety, which tended to increase as the pandemic wore on
- Children were more at risk of mental health problems if: their primary caregiver had mental health issues prior to the pandemic; the child had lower emotion regulation skills prior to the pandemic; the primary caregiver was highly distressed; the family experienced a higher number of negative COVID-related events (for example, social isolation, financial stress, disrupted routines); the family scored highly on parenting rejection.
Resilience
The good news is that most children recover quickly from a natural disaster or disruptive event with the support of caring adults. Rather than thinking of resilience as a character trait, it’s helpful to consider the systems that support a child and think about how we can build more resilient communities and families.
One useful model for discussion of disaster resilience is the circle model of ‘Preparedness, Response and Recovery’. This model emphasises being mindful of building resilience before or in the absence of a disaster (preparedness), while the event is occurring (response), and in the period after it occurs (recovery). It requires a ‘when not if’ mindset, recognising that challenging events are part of life, and that getting through hard times with support from others can help individuals learn, grow and get stronger.
Building children’s resilience
