1. Social group connections support mental health following wildfire.
- Author
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Cruwys, Tegan, Macleod, Emily, Heffernan, Timothy, Walker, Iain, Stanley, Samantha K., Kurz, Tim, Greenwood, Lisa-Marie, Evans, Olivia, and Calear, Alison L.
- Subjects
SOCIAL groups ,DISASTER resilience ,MENTAL health ,PSYCHOLOGICAL resilience ,ENVIRONMENTAL disasters ,POST-traumatic stress - Abstract
Purpose: As environmental disasters become more common and severe due to climate change, there is a growing need for strategies to bolster recovery that are proactive, cost-effective, and which mobilise community resources. Aims: We propose that building social group connections is a particularly promising strategy for supporting mental health in communities affected by environmental disasters. Methods: We tested the social identity model of identity change in a disaster context among 627 people substantially affected by the 2019–2020 Australian fires. Results: We found high levels of post-traumatic stress, strongly related to severity of disaster exposure, but also evidence of psychological resilience. Distress and resilience were weakly positively correlated. Having stronger social group connections pre-disaster was associated with less distress and more resilience 12–18 months after the disaster, via three pathways: greater social identification with the disaster-affected community, greater continuity of social group ties, and greater formation of new social group ties. New group ties were a mixed blessing, positively predicting both resilience and distress. Conclusions: We conclude that investment in social resources is key to supporting mental health outcomes, not just reactively in the aftermath of disasters, but also proactively in communities most at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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