Trajectories of Emotional Symptoms and Peer Relationship Problems in Children after Nuclear Disaster: Evidence from the Fukushima Health Management Survey

Misari Oe, Masaharu Maeda, Tetsuya Ohira, Shuntaro Itagaki, Mayumi Harigane, Yuriko Suzuki, Hirooki Yabe, Seiji Yasumura, Kenji Kamiya and Hitoshi Ohto
Additional contact information
Misari Oe: Department of Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Kurume University, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan
Masaharu Maeda: Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
Tetsuya Ohira: Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
Shuntaro Itagaki: Department of Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
Mayumi Harigane: Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
Yuriko Suzuki: Department of Adult Mental Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira 187-8553, Japan
Hirooki Yabe: Department of Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
Seiji Yasumura: Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
Kenji Kamiya: Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
Hitoshi Ohto: Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, which occurred in March 2011, is having long-term effects on children. We planned this study to describe the trajectories of emotional symptoms and peer relationship problems in children and to examine potential risks and protective factors over the 35 months following the accident. The sample was 11,791 children in the first to sixth elementary grades. We identified four patterns for emotional symptoms and three patterns for peer relationship problems, using group-based trajectory modelling. For emotional symptoms, female gender, experience of tsunami and nuclear plant accident, out-of-prefecture evacuees, and insufficient physical activity were associated with the very severe trajectory. In contrast, for peer relationship problems, male gender, experience of nuclear plant accident, and insufficient physical activity were associated with the very severe trajectory. Different factors might be related to the very severe trajectories of emotional symptoms and peer relationship problems.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Physical Exercise; Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/82/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/82/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:1:p:82-:d:125703

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().