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Speaking of Psychology · June 25, 2025 · 35m
How Disasters Affect Children's Mental Health
From hurricanes to wildfires to gun violence, trauma and disaster affect millions of children each year. A child psychologist discusses how disasters impact children differently than adults, and evidence-based strategies for supporting children through traumatic events.
This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.
Canon
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Mills: research consistently shows that children's long-term psychological outcomes after disaster depend less on the severity of the disaster and more on how the adults around them respond. Calm, reassuring, available caregivers buffer children against trauma; anxious, absent, or dismissive caregivers amplify it.
Highlights
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Children's trauma responses are often indirect — behavioral changes rather than verbalized distress
Mills: children, especially younger ones, often cannot verbalize their trauma. Instead, distress manifests as behavioral regression (bedwetting, thumb-sucking), separation anxiety, sleep disturbance, or acting out. Adults who expect children to 'talk about their feelings' may miss these non-verbal signals.Was this useful?