Ethnic Groups Differences in Domestic Recovery after the Catastrophe: A Case Study of the 2008 Magnitude 7.9 Earthquake in China

This research examined the ethnic differences in domestic recovery after the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China. In 2014, 866 valid questionnaires were collected. Han and Qiang & Zang households were analyzed using logistic regression to determine the factors influencing household recovery. It was found that the householder of the Qiang & Zang group played a more important role in household recovery. Different from the Han, females from Qiang & Zang households had negative attitudes on recovery, and Qiang & Zang households did not believe in the effectiveness of public donations for post-quake recovery. The study also showed that local workers in a household were more helpful for household recovery than were migrant workers in a household, regardless of ethnicity. Therefore, the government should create more local jobs in Han and Qiang & Zang households and pay more attention to women in Qiang households. Assistance should be established specifically for the psychological recovery of Qiang women and family recovery projects.