Long-Term Impact of Hurricane Sandy Exposure on Positive and Negative Affect: The Role of Perceived Social Support

Social support moderates posttraumatic stress and general distress after disaster

Bram Wolters, Almar Kok, Martijn Huisman, Francine Cartwright and Rachel Pruchno

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2022, vol. 77, issue 10, 1892-1903

Abstract: ObjectivesNatural disasters can have devastating, long-lasting effects on the mental health of older adults. However, few studies have examined associations among disaster exposure and positive and negative affect, and no longitudinal studies have investigated the extent to which predisaster perceived social support affects these associations. These analyses examine the associations among predisaster perceived social support, disaster exposure, and positive and negative affect experienced by community-dwelling older adults 4 years after Hurricane Sandy, controlling for predisaster affect.MethodsSelf-reported data collected before and after Hurricane Sandy from participants (aged 50–74 years) in the ORANJ BOWL panel (N = 2,442) were analyzed using linear regression models.ResultsHigher levels of peritraumatic stress experienced during Hurricane Sandy and greater hardship experienced after the storm were associated with more negative affect 4 years following the disaster. Higher perceived social support at baseline was related to more positive affect and less negative affect both before and after the hurricane. Social support did not moderate the effect of hurricane exposure on either positive or negative affect.DiscussionFindings suggest that psychological effects may persist years after natural disasters and that more effective interventions may be needed during and after a disaster. While social support is critical to positive and negative affect in general, its buffering effects when disaster strikes may be limited.

Keywords: Adversity; Affective well-being; Disaster; Resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbac066 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:10:p:1892-1903.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().