Picking up the pieces: Family functioning in the aftermath of natural diasaster

Australian Institute of Family Studies: Family Matters No. 84 – May 2010

This article is a literature review of research regarding the responses of individuals, families and communities to catastrophic events. The author focuses on the likely short and long-term effects of the adversities that follow such events, and particularly considers the impacts on children and adolescents, as well as the potential for “spill-over” to those not directly affected by the crisis or catastrophe. The author notes that families have the potential to be both a site of transmission of such effects and the locus of recovery.