title: Factors attributing to the psychological recovery from the 1999 Taiwan earthquake among junior high school students: a focus group interview study.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors contributing to the psychological recovery from the 1999 Taiwan earthquake from the perspective of adolescents in Chungliao. A total of 22 junior high school students who had significant decrease of Impact of Event Scale (IES) scores in the follow-up period of 9 months were recruited to participate in one of three focus groups. By applying the method of focus group interviewing, adolescents' attributions of factors relating to the improvements of psychological reactions were collected. All interviews were tape-recorded and the transcripts were approached by content analysis. Four major factors contributing to psychological recovery from the earthquake are clustered: (1) self-healing effect as time passed away; (2) assistance from people of the non-afflicted areas; (3) being engaged in interests in leisure time; and (4) other important events happening after the earthquake. Several factors contributed to the psychological recovery of adolescents from the experience of the earthquake. The results of this study can serve as the basis of further treatment strategies for the adolescent refugees from major disasters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 100, Shih-Chuan 1st Rd., Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.forename: Y P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: I N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Yeh
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002648:Child; D004190:Disasters; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D013624:Taiwan