Citation

Zahnow R, Wickes R, Taylor M, Corcoran J. Disasters 2019; 43(2): 261-288.

Affiliation

Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Queensland Centre for Population Research at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12317

PMID

30431169

Abstract

Disasters can have severe and long-lasting consequences for individuals and communities. While scholarly evidence indicates that access to social support can ameliorate their negative impacts, less understood is whether or not neighbourhood social capital can facilitate recovery. This study uses two waves of survey data-collected before and after a significant flood in Brisbane, Australia, in 2011-to examine the relationship between the severity of the event at the individual and neighbourhood level, access to neighbourhood social capital and individual-level social support, and functioning in the post-disaster environment. In line with previous research, the results indicate that the severity of the flood is the most salient predictor of post-disaster functioning. No evidence was unearthed to show that neighbourhood social capital amassed before the flood leads to better functioning subsequently, but the findings do suggest that individual-level social support can moderate the effect of flood severity on functioning.

© 2018 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2018.

Language: en

Keywords

disaster; functioning; social capital; social support