Children's reactions to disaster -- Helping children cope -- Get more help when needed.

The challenging job of raising children can become harder when a disaster happens. Disasters take different forms--natural (earthquakes, tornados, wildfires), family loss, school shootings, and community violence. These events affect parents and children in different ways. Parents and children can feel distress if they were directly impacted by the disaster, know someone who was affected, or learn about the events from the news. Parents recognizing how a disaster has affected them and using healthy ways to cope are important parts of an entire family doing better after a disaster. When parents take good care of themselves, they are better able to support their children. Parents coping well with stress also show their children good ways to begin to heal. For more information about how adults can cope with stress following a traumatic event, visit: www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pub/coping_with_stress_tips.html.

CDC-INFO Pub ID 221601

Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection