The proposed study examines the relationships between short-term and long-term adjustment of a sample of families who have experienced a disaster-initiated relocation. Although both individual-lvel and family-level assessment will be utilized in the study design, the core interest of the study centers on the extent to which family disorganization proximal to the forced relocation places individuals at higher than usual risk to a manifest long-term psychosocial maladjustment following this type of stressor event. A longitudinal, multi-panel study of at least four different disaster-impacted communities will be undertaken in which focused assessments of families and the individuals within these families will be carried out. The study has two major aims: 1) to examine the relationship between short-term (proximal) response patterns of families to disaster-initiated relocations, and parameters of long-term adjustment (distal psychosocial functioning) post-relocation of the individual members of these families; and 2) to explore the role of likely individual and family-level resource variables as determinants of short- and long-term post-relocation psychosocial adjustment. Regarding likely resource variables, emphasis will be placed on two types of personal constructs suggested by the PI's prior research as major mediators of levels of psychopathological consequences associated with involuntary relocation. These constructs are: a) perceived sense of coherence (reflected in individual-level coping styles and family problem-solving style); and b) perceived degree of social embeddedness (reflected in friendship and kinship social network characteristics).
| Wamboldt, F S; Steinglass, P; Kaplan De-Nour, A (1991) Coping within couples: adjustment two years after forced geographic relocation. Fam Process 30:347-61 |
