Citation

McFarlane AC. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Psychiatry 1987; 21(2): 210-218.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3675454

Abstract

The longitudinal impact of a natural disaster on the patterns of interaction in families with latency-aged children is examined. An 11-item questionnaire was developed and two factors were isolated: irritable distress and involvement. A group of 183 disaster-affected families were contrasted with 497 families who had not been exposed to the disaster. Eight months after the disaster, the interaction in the disaster-affected families was characterised by increased levels of conflict, irritability and withdrawal. Maternal overprotection was also a common feature of the pattern of care in these families. Post-traumatic morbidity in parents was the major determinant of the observed changes in family functioning and the overprotection.

Language: en