Adolescent girls’ representations of the role of schools and teachers post-disaster: “second parents, second homes”

ABSTRACT

Disasters can result in poor psychosocial outcomes for adolescents. One pathway to mitigate these risks and foster resilience is via schools, where teachers can offer students support. However, existing research lacks consideration of the role schools and teachers play from the perspective of students, particularly those from marginalized populations. Therefore, this study examines adolescents’ representations of the role of schools and teachers after a major disaster in Indonesia using a free association interview technique. Thematic analysis of adolescents’ interviews (N = 46) yielded two salient themes: ‘the school as a place of recovery’ and ‘the school as a place of risk’. While the school and teachers were conceptualized positively in that they promoted students’ recovery, students also identified aspects of the post-disaster school environment that produced uncertainty, loss and discomfort thereby heightening their sense of risk. The paper concludes with recommendations for resilience-building, such as ensuring teachers receive relevant training.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• schools
• teachers
• disaster
• trauma
• themata

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Sejenak Hening for their support with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that supports the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

1. School A experienced severe structural damage, with around 50% of buildings collapsed. School B incurred less devastating structural damage, including cracked and partially collapsed buildings. School C was inundated by tsunami, resulting in severe internal damage from flooding and sediment deposition. Relief tents reopened on site for School A and B and elsewhere in the region for School C, due to the extent of the damage and vulnerable coastal location. School A has on-going concerns about the structural integrity of their buildings, School B remains functional, despite noticeable cracks and although School C was initially structurally sound, the school has been exposed to by monthly seawater flooding and structural corrosion over time.

2. This study is part of a larger interdisciplinary project that aims to foster resilient post-disaster recovery psychosocially and by improving water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for girls. Girls are particularly vulnerable to the psychological impacts of disasters and are uniquely affected by inadequate WASH facilities due to biological and social factors (see Garfias Royo et al., 2022). Notably, this age group (14–16-year-old girls) are at risk of not returning to school post-disaster due to helping at home, stress of handling menarche and lack of toilet facilities.

3. The average monthly salary in Indonesia is reported as 8–9 million Indonesian Rupiah (Wage Centre, 2023). 74% of the sample reported their household income to be below 4 million Indonesian Rupiah. Only 5% reported their household income to be above 8 million Indonesian Rupiah.

4. Researchers were based outside of the Central Sulawesi region of Indonesia and travel was limited by COVID-19 regulations.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)/Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) for Equitable Resilience [grant number ES/T002956/1].

Notes on contributors

Elinor Parrott

Elinor Parrott is a PhD student in Psychology at University College London (UCL). Her research interests include resilience, trauma and adolescent mental health. She holds an undergraduate and master’s degree from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified secondary school teacher. Her current research focuses on the role of schools and teachers in supporting students’ resilience after a major disaster.

Martha Lomeli-Rodriguez

Martha Lomeli Rodriguez is a Postdoctoral research fellow at University College London (UCL) in the Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology. Her research areas are social and cultural psychology, with a focus on differences and similarities in subjective wellbeing across cultures.

Emily-Marie Pacheco

Emily-Marie Pacheco is a Teaching Fellow in Clinical Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD research explored the effects of remote exposure to trauma in international students. Her research continues to focus on the themes of trauma, stress and coping, as well as identity development, social integration, meaning-making, eudemonic wellbeing and resilience.

Alfi Rahman

Alfi Rahman currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Universitas Syiah Kuala (USK) in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. He is also actively engaged in research as a member of the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC) and holds the position of Director at the Research Center for Social and Cultural Studies (PRISB) at USK. Alfi's research interests encompass various aspects of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), including Knowledge Management, Indigenous Knowledge, Disaster Policy, Disaster Education, and Disaster Risk Communication.

Yulia Direzkia

Yulia Direzkia is a Clinical Psychologist working at the Psychology Department of dr. Zainoel Abidin General Hospital in Banda Aceh. Her research areas predominantly focus on clinical and social psychology, with a special emphasis on psychosocial and trauma-related aspects.

Helene Joffe

Helene Joffe is a Professor of Psychology at University College London (UCL) with research interests in how people conceptualise, respond to and recover from various dangers, as well as the liveability of cities. She has devised a method to elicit people’s conceptualisations of risks and has written extensively on methodological issues. In addition to having produced mixed methods, cross-cultural, prize winning work on risk, she has led a wide range of multi-disciplinary projects. One current, large project she leads is on how to foster resilient recovery from disasters internationally.