kouskyrfforg The Impacts of Natural Disasters o n Children Carolyn Kousky Resources for the Future 2 Chapter questions Do disasters have a disproportional impact on children If so what are those ID: 337115
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March 13, 2015kousky@rff.org
The Impacts of Natural Disasterson Children
Carolyn Kousky
Resources for the FutureSlide2
2Chapter questions
Do disasters have a disproportional impact on children?If so, what are those
impacts?
How
long do the effects last
?
What can be done to mitigate the negative impacts
?Slide3
3Outline
Climate change and natural disasters
Disaster Impacts on Children
Pathways
Comment on methods
Health Impacts
Exposure in utero
Exposure in childhood
Long-term consequences
Mental Health Impacts
Schooling Impacts
Developed / Developing country studies
Mitigation/Adaptation
Slide4
4/37Climate Change and Natural Disasters
Source: US Climate Change Science Program; IPCC SREXSlide5
Disaster impacts on childrenDestruction of schools and health facilitiesDestruction of HH assets or loss of income; required increase in expenditures
Stress and traumaRisk of abuse and neglectLiving with risk ex-anteSlide6
Some notes on methodsUnderlying mechanisms not identifiedSmall samples, case studies, many short-runOVB
Many studies do not have pre-disaster dataCould be sorting on ex-ante risk Attrition from sampleSlide7
Health impactsIn Utero Exposure – some findings from hurricanes & heat wavesIncrease in risk for: low birth weight, delivery complications, abnormal conditions, reduced gestational age / preterm birth, worse apgar
scoresImpacts worse for more severe disaster experiencesSome times more sensitive, but variation in findingsChildhood Exposure
Children can be at increased susceptibility for mortality
Children at higher risk for some diseases
Respiratory, gastro-intestinal
Most focused on malnourishment in developing countries. Disaster occurrence linked to:
Higher probability of being undernourished
Lower
height-for-age Z scores
Higher
risk of stunting and being underweight
Birth to 2 is a highly sensitive periodSlide8
Health impactsHealth facilities destroyedIllness and injury from event untreatedUnrelated health problems not treated
Lack of sanitation; lack of clean drinking waterSpread of infectious diseasesDehydrationConsumption shock; loss of crops
Reduced food consumption – malnourishment, deficiencies
Traumatic event
Physical impacts of stressSlide9
Mental health impactsPrevalenceHigher rates of PTSD and other stress and anxiety related mental health problems after a disaster
DeterminantsAspects of exposure (e.g., magnitude of losses, perceived life threat)Child characteristics (e.g., age, gender, prior experiences)Social support (role of parents, for example)
Child coping responses (anger, positive coping strategies…)Slide10
SchoolingDestruction of schoolsPoor health from disaster could impact schoolingMigration
Family shifts children from school to labor force to make up lost incomeDeveloped country studies
Katrina studies – drop and then increase from improvement in school quality
Hurricanes may have small impacts on test scores; likely returns to pre-storm levels
Developing country studies
Disasters tend to show a decrease in school attendance and increase in labor participation but varies by location and aspects of child
Is there state dependence? Slide11
Mitigating negative impactsClimate change could make impacts worse; increase areas threatened by disastersMany areas face “adaptation deficit”
Strategies:Ex-anteHazard mitigation, particularly better buildingResponse plansNon-disaster policies and safety netsImproved health care infrastructure
Access to credit
School enrollment subsidies and social insurance
Best practices for response
Health interventions
Reunification
Special housing and shelter needsSlide12
Thank you.kousky@rff.org