Abstract:

This project focuses on the psychological impact and health consequences of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in commercial fishers and their families currently living in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes in South Louisiana. This study extends an ongoing program of research on post-Katrina resilience and recovery in current and former residents of St. Bernard, a geographic region that was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We have tested 189 current and former residents of the catchment area and 30 non-affected controls living in Baton Rouge, LA. Data collection is completed.

Suggested Citation:

Katie Cherry. 2015. Psychosocial and Health Consequences After Disaster: Human Adaptive Capacities and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7FB50WF

Purpose:

To examine the long-term consequences of exposure to technological disaster.

Data Parameters and Units:

Subject self-report, paper and pencil questionnaires. CHERRY_GMRI_data_combined (May 2014).xlsx-- SS #, PTSD scale (17 questions), Depression Scale auto recode (9 questions), Anxiety Scale auto recode (7 questions), Major dep, Other dep, All dep, Dep w functional impairment, Other dep w functional impairment, All dep w functional impairment, Probable depression, Probable dep w functional impairment, Any depression symptoms, Depressed mood or anhedonia, Anxiety Scale (GAD) recode (7 questions), Generalized Anxiety, Criterion B: repeatedly re-experiening trauma -- need one or more, Criterion C: avoidance -- need three or more, Criterion D: arousal -- need two or more, Criterion B, C and D, PTSD score = sum of PCL1-PCL17, Demographics Gender (1=Male; 2=Female), Marital (1=Single; 2=Married; 3=Divorced; 4=Widowed), Ethnicity (1=African American; 2=American Indian/Alaskan Native; 3=Asian; 4=Caucasian; 5=Hispanic/Latino; 6=Isleno 7=Native Hawaiian/PI; 8=Other), Education (1 = High School or less; 2=H.S./GED; 3=some college/associates; 4=Bachelors; 5=Masters; 6=Doctorate/professional degree), Spouse educ, Health (1 = excellent, 2=good; 3 = fair; 4 = poor), Health pre-oil spill (1 = not at all; 2=a little; 3 = a great deal), Healthcomp (1 = better; 2 = same; 3 = worse), Chronic (6 conditions summed, doesn't include "7" other), Chronic6, Other_chronic, Num_other_chronic, Hospital, Prescriptions (0=none; 1= 1 to 3; 2= 4 to 6; 3=7 to 9; 4=over 10), Location (1=farm, 2 = country, 3 = small town, 4 = large city/suburb, 5 = major city/downtown), Live where (1 = own place; 2 = rental; 3 = anothers home; 4 = ass't living; 5 = nh; 6 = trailer/RV, 7 = other), Live with (1 = alone, 2 = with spouse, 3 = with adult children), IncomeAde(1 = not, 2 = necessities only, 3 = afford some; 4 = afford all; 5 = afford /save), Income Amount (1 = less than 1K, 2 = 1-2K; 3 = 2-3K, 4 = 3-4K, 5 = 4-5K, 6 = 5-6K, 7 = 6K or more), VOCABULARY, CONNOR-DAVIDSON resilience measure (0 = not true at all; 1 = rarely true; 2 = sometimes true; 3 = often true; 4 = true nearly all the time) MMSE (Mini-Mental State Exam, a cognitive status screening measure), Orientation, Registration, Attention and Calculation, Recall, Lanquage, Repetition Comprehension, Organizational Religiosity and Faith Community Involvement Module (4 questions), Nonorganizational Religiosity Module (3 questions), Religious Beliefs and Coping Module (5 questions), FaithComm (Q3+Q4), NonOrg (Q5+Q6+Q7), Relbeliefs (Q8+Q9), Relcoping (Q10+Q11+Q12), Ai's Spiritual Support Questionnaire (1 = SD, 2 = D, 3 = A, 4 = SA), Goals Scale / State Hope (1996 short form)(range: 1 = definitely false to 8 = definitely true), Perceived Social Support Scale (higher total number = more support), Social engagement: ISEL - 9 Social Support scale. yes=1; no=0. Higher total score means more support, LEFCOURT HUMOR (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = mildly disagree; 3 = mildly agree; 4 = strongly agree), Humor (auto recode accounts for 2 reverse scored items, #1 and 4), OPTIMISM (0 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree), OPTIMISM (auto recode accounts for 3 reverse scored items, #3, 7, 9).

Individual Files: