title: The Role of Parents, Parenting and the Family Environment in Children's Post-Disaster Mental Health.
abstract: There is widespread support for the hypothesis that, post-disaster, children's mental health is impacted--at least in part--via the impact on parents, parenting, parent-child interactions, and the family environment. To some degree, the enthusiasm with which this hypothesis is held outstrips the evidence examining it. The current paper critically evaluates the empirical evidence for this hypothesis and concludes that although limited (both in terms of number of existing studies and methodological flaws), the extant literature indicates some parent-related variables, as well as some aspects of the family environment are likely to constitute risk or protective factors for children. Given that parenting is modifiable, it is proposed that the identified parent- and family-related factors represent important therapeutic targets, and a universal post-disaster parenting intervention (Disaster Recovery Triple P) is described.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia. Vanessa@psy.uq.edu.au.|Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland, South Brisbane, Queensland, 4101, Australia. Vanessa@psy.uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Vanessa E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Cobham
authors.affiliation: James Cook University, Douglas, Queensland, 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.affiliation: Parenting and Family Support Centre, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, 4067, Australia.
authors.forename: Divna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haslam
authors.affiliation: Parenting and Family Support Centre, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, 4067, Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sanders
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Children; Disaster; Family environment; Mental health; Parenting