Coping with the Stress of Relocation After a Disaster (Part 3): Stress in Young People
How Disaster-Related Stress Affects Young People
Disaster-related stress affects young people in several ways:
- Damage, injuries, and deaths that result from an unexpected or uncontrollable event are difficult for most young people to understand.
- Following a disaster, a young person's view of the world as safe and predictable is temporarily lost. This is true of adults as well.
- Young people express their feelings and reactions in various ways, especially in different age groups. Many are confused about what has happened and about their feelings. Not every child has immediate reactions; some can have delayed reactions that show up days, weeks, or even months later, and some may never have a reaction. Children's reactions are strongly affected by the emotional reactions of their parents and the adults around them.
- Young people can easily become afraid that a similar event will happen again and that they or their family will be injured or killed.
How Young People Show Stress
It is normal for young people to show signs of stress after a disaster. Young people show signs of stress differently at different ages or school levels. This article looks at three age groupings:
- Preschool years
- Elementary and middle school years
- High school and teenage years
Signs of Stress: Preschoolers
Signs that preschool-age children may be experiencing normal, but high, levels of stress may include
- Waking up confused and frightened from bad dreams
- Being reluctant to go to bed or refusing to sleep alone
- Acting and showing behaviors younger than their actual age, such as whining, thumb-sucking, bed-wetting, baby talk, or fear of darkness
- Clinging to adults more than normal
- Complaining often about illnesses such as stomachaches
- Not having fun doing things they normally enjoyed
- Being irritable
Signs of Stress: Elementary- or Middle-School Age
Signs that elementary- or middle school-age children are experiencing normal, but high, levels of stress may include
- Ongoing concern over their own safety and the safety of others in their school or family
- Irrational fears
- Becoming extremely upset for little or no reason
- Having nightmares and sleep problems
- Experiencing problems in school, such as truancy or misbehavior (e.g. loss of interest, withdrawal, or excessive need for attention)
- Complaining of headaches or stomachaches without cause
- Not having fun doing things they normally enjoyed
- Disruptive behaviors—outbursts of anger and fighting
- Being numb to their emotions
- Experiencing guilt or shame about what they did or did not do during the disaster
Signs of Stress: High-School Age
Signs that teenagers may be experiencing normal, but high, levels of stress include
- Feeling self-conscious about their feelings concerning the disaster
- Feeling fearful, helpless, and concerned about being labeled "abnormal" or different from their friends or classmates (this may lead to social withdrawal)
- Experiencing shame or guilt about the disaster
- Expressing fantasies about retribution concerning people connected to disaster events
- Not having fun doing things they normally enjoyed
- Difficulty concentrating
- Impulsive behaviors
- Emotional numbing
- Seeing the world as an unsafe place
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). (Reviewed 2024 [Ed.]). Signs of stress in young people (pp. 3–4). Relocation stress: Helping families deal with the stress of relocation after a disaster (B. Schuette, Ed.). Retrieved May 28, 2024, from https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov