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Adolescent mental distress in the wake of climate disasters
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Adolescent mental distress in the wake of climate disasters

Amy H. Auchincloss, Dominic A. Ruggiero, Meghan T. Donnelly, Esther D. Chernak and Josiah L. Kephart
Preventive medicine reports, v 39, 102651
Mar 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102651
PMID: 38405174
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102651View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0,  Open

Abstract

Adolescent Disasters Environment Floods Schools Wildfires Mental Disorders Mental Health Weather
• Climate disasters were linked to high-school students in 22 urban areas. • Odds of mental distress were higher with more days under a disaster declaration. • Impacts were found for disasters occurring during past 2- and 5- yrs but not 10 yrs. Retrospective exposure to a higher number and prolonged duration of climate-related disasters could be positively associated with adolescent mental distress. Person-level data came from 38,616 high-school students residing in 22 urban public-school districts in 14 states (U.S. Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2019). Each district’s federally declared climate-related catastrophes (severe storms, floods, wildfire, etc.) came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Logistic regression models estimated the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of adolescent mental distress (MD, using survey responses feeling prolonged sadness/ hopelessness and short sleep duration) according to disaster events and days during three exposure periods (past 2-, 5-, 10-years); adjusted for age, gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic disadvantage, feeling unsafe at school, district area size, district poverty, and region. Over 10 years, the median number of disaster events was 3 and total disaster days was 64. Adolescents experiencing the highest number of disaster days (top quartile vs. less) had 25% higher odds of MD when exposed within the past 2-years (aOR 1.25 [95% CI 1.14, 1.38]), and 20% higher odds of MD when exposed within the past 5-years (aOR 1.20 95% CI 1.07, 1.35). The odds of MD were not statistically associated with exposure periods that extended to 10 years, nor disaster events (instead of disaster days, all p-values > 0.1). Severe weather will become more frequent and last longer with human-induced climate warming. More studies like this are needed to understand the broad range of adverse effects and enhance planning and preparedness including preparing for worsening mental health among adolescents.

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8 citations in Web of Science
3 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#5 Gender Equality

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Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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