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Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study

BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the mental health impacts of extreme weather events (EWEs). This qualitative study aims to explore the stressful and protective factors after experiencing an EWE, such as flooding, how adolescents coped with these experiences and wh...

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Autores principales: Schürr, Alina, Elbel, Johanna, Hieronimi, Annika, Auer, Isabel, Coenen, Michaela, Böse-O'Reilly, Stephan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10511869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37744475
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210072
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author Schürr, Alina
Elbel, Johanna
Hieronimi, Annika
Auer, Isabel
Coenen, Michaela
Böse-O'Reilly, Stephan
author_facet Schürr, Alina
Elbel, Johanna
Hieronimi, Annika
Auer, Isabel
Coenen, Michaela
Böse-O'Reilly, Stephan
author_sort Schürr, Alina
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the mental health impacts of extreme weather events (EWEs). This qualitative study aims to explore the stressful and protective factors after experiencing an EWE, such as flooding, how adolescents coped with these experiences and what mental health care they received. METHODS: Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with young adults (18–24 years) living in Simbach am Inn, a German town affected by flooding in 2016. The interviews were analyzed using Kuckartz's qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The days after the flood were described as the most stressful time. The main stressors were concern for their family, confrontation with the extent of the damage and uncertainty during the flood. In terms of protective factors, respondents cited talking about the flood, family support and helping with cleanup as the most important. Adolescents requested further mental health care in schools and not just in the immediate aftermath. CONCLUSION: Future preventive and therapeutic care measures should be optimized according to protective and stressful factors. Mental health care should be offered after months and should be low-threshold. Additionally, the social environment of adolescents is essential for their mental wellbeing after an EWE and needs to be strengthened.
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spelling pubmed-105118692023-09-22 Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study Schürr, Alina Elbel, Johanna Hieronimi, Annika Auer, Isabel Coenen, Michaela Böse-O'Reilly, Stephan Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the mental health impacts of extreme weather events (EWEs). This qualitative study aims to explore the stressful and protective factors after experiencing an EWE, such as flooding, how adolescents coped with these experiences and what mental health care they received. METHODS: Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with young adults (18–24 years) living in Simbach am Inn, a German town affected by flooding in 2016. The interviews were analyzed using Kuckartz's qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The days after the flood were described as the most stressful time. The main stressors were concern for their family, confrontation with the extent of the damage and uncertainty during the flood. In terms of protective factors, respondents cited talking about the flood, family support and helping with cleanup as the most important. Adolescents requested further mental health care in schools and not just in the immediate aftermath. CONCLUSION: Future preventive and therapeutic care measures should be optimized according to protective and stressful factors. Mental health care should be offered after months and should be low-threshold. Additionally, the social environment of adolescents is essential for their mental wellbeing after an EWE and needs to be strengthened. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-09-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10511869/ /pubmed/37744475 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210072 Text en Copyright © 2023 Schürr, Elbel, Hieronimi, Auer, Coenen and Böse-O'Reilly. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Schürr, Alina
Elbel, Johanna
Hieronimi, Annika
Auer, Isabel
Coenen, Michaela
Böse-O'Reilly, Stephan
Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study
title Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study
title_full Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study
title_fullStr Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study
title_full_unstemmed Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study
title_short Mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in Bavaria, Germany—A qualitative interview study
title_sort mental health in adolescents after experiencing a flood event in bavaria, germany—a qualitative interview study
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10511869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37744475
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210072
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