Earthquake Impact on Miami Haitian Americans: The Role of Family/Social Connectedness

Abstract

Individuals who are indirectly exposed to disasters may be affected psychologically. The impact of the 2010 Haiti earthquake reverberated throughout the Haitian American community in Miami, Florida. Many within the community held strong transnational family and friendship bonds to their homeland. We examined associations between indicators of family and social connectedness and symptom levels for generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, and physical and mental health status for Haitian Americans and non-Haitian Americans who were living in Miami at the time of the earthquake. Results showed that family and social connectedness to earthquake victims strongly predicted symptom levels for Haitian American survey participants.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude for the contributions made by Dr. Yuval Neria, Professor and Director, Trauma and PTSD Program, Columbia University, New York, NY; and Dr. Avi Besser, Professor and Chairman, Center for Research in Personality, Life Transitions and Stressful Life Events, Sapir Academic College, Israel, in the areas of selection of instrument selection and data analysis. Further, the authors wish to thank Ms. Gessy Lilavois and Ms. Marie Ange Levasseur for Sharing their insights, stories, and love of Haiti.

Notes

Note. Gender (0 = female, 1 = male), ethnicity (0 = non-Haitian, 1 = Haitian), Race (0 = Black, 1 = White/other), marital status (0 = unmarried, 1 = married), employment status (0 = unemployed, 1 = employed), and education status (0 = non-academic, 1 = academic) are binary-coded variables.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001 (two-tailed).

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001 (two-tailed).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Allen

Andrea Allen is an associate professor of behavioral sciences and interim dean of the School of Adult and Continuing Education at Barry University. Her research interests focus mainly on childhood anxiety disorders and communities' reactions to trauma.

Louis Herns Marcelin

Louis Herns Marcelin is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami. He is also the chancellor for the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development, Haiti. His research interests focus on urban youth gangs, violence, human insecurity, and globalization; policy analysis, security and threat assessment; kinship, family, and religion in the African Diaspora, as well as on the anthropology of post-disaster.

Susan Schmitz

Susan Schmitz is an adjunct professor at Barry University. She has worked in disaster preparedness research and training, providing psychological support to refugees within the United States. She holds a master of arts degree in international disaster psychology.

Vicky Hausmann

Vicky Hausmann served as a research associate for this project at Barry University. She holds a master of science degree in psychology and is a state registered mental health counseling intern in Florida with a focus on anxiety disorders and personality disorders.

James M. Shultz

James M. Shultz is director of the Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center) University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. His research interests are in the areas of psychological consequences of disaster exposure, mental health intervention trials with violence/conflict-affected populations in international settings, community resilience, citizen disaster preparedness, and evidence-based guidance for mental health and psychosocial support for disaster survivors.