The purpose of this research is to obtain post-disaster measures on the psychological well-being of residents following hurricane Andrew. The investigator has pre-disaster data on 313 South Florida students which includes measures of demographics, distress, health, performance, cardiovascular and biochemical indices, and other moderators such as dispositional optimism, personal control, social support, and type of coping. Post- disaster data will now be collected and analyzed using the same measures. Related variables will be grouped together and then subjected to multivariate analyses of variance and covariance. The analyses will be complemented by moderator variable regression analyses aimed at identifying social and personality variables that have helped residents cope following Hurricane Andrew. The pre- and post- design that is now possible will allow more definitive conclusions to be drawn than the vast majority of studies on natural disasters, which have employed retrospective measures and static control group designs. The study should overcome several other limitations of past studies in this area. First, other studies have ignored important theoretical distinctions such as the difference between threat and harm appraisal. This project will compare the reactions of students who live in areas that sustained major damage from the hurricane with those of students who were also threatened but did not suffer damage. Second, other studies have done little more than classify respondents as being victims or not victims of a disaster. In this study, one can see undamaged residences standing next to totally destryed homes, and a questionnaire has been designed to assess actual hardship. Third, other studies in this area have employed reactive procedures. Respondents have known that they are being interviewed because they experienced a major catastrophe. This will be avoided in this study by obtaining data from students as part of the "standard" program of testing that goes on in psychology departments. It is only after respondents have answered items on measures of psychological distress that they will be asked to complete the Hurricane Questionnaire.
