Essay Focus

Children's rights in emergencies and disasters

The uses of social media technologies in disaster risk management have been increasing in recent years, and a high number of studies have been produced with the purpose to investigate how social media can support disaster risk management processes. However, some criticalities in the use of social media, especially connected to limitations to accessibility, representativeness capacity, and the risks of disinformation and surveillance, have emerged and need to be further investigated. Accordingly, this work offers a critical analysis on how social media can impact post-disaster vulnerability, but also how it can be used as a tool for resilience by vulnerable people. In particular, the paper focuses on the challenges to which displaced minors have to deal with in post-disaster settings, following a series of large earthquakes which struck central Italy in 2016 and 2017. The results show that virtual space, and especially social media, is used by displaced minors to deal with the transformations that occur to the physical spaces of sociality. The virtual space becomes a potential source of resilience to help reconnecting with places and communities and working as a potential space of catharsis. The study is based on a series of semi-structured and in-depth interviews that took place in Italy between 2021 and 2022. The interviews involved participants with experience in disaster risk management in Italy, as well as with direct experience in the response and recovery efforts for the 2016–2017 Italian earthquakes.

Increasing natural disasters have caused immediate and chronic psychosocial problems on adolescent survivors. Resilience-related skills are crucial for adolescents' recovery from and prevention against negative consequences, but relevant interventions are limited, especially for Tibetan adolescents. This study aimed to develop, implement, and preliminarily evaluate a culturally-attuned resilience intervention for Tibetan adolescent survivors living with natural hazards risks in China. The intervention was developed based on the 7Cs model of resilience (competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control), and Tibetan adolescents' resilience characteristics by interviewing adolescents, their teachers and experts. A pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted at three Yushu senior middle schools among Tibetan adolescent survivors at nine years after the 2010 Yushu earthquake in 2019. The intervention group attended nine 90-min sessions on learning competence, self-confidence, coping, interpersonal competence, and earthquake preparedness, and provided feedback after intervention. Both groups completed questionnaires about resilience, mental health, learning competence, self-esteem, coping, and interpersonal competence before and after the project. Compared with the control group (n = 28), the intervention group (n = 28) showed significant improvement in mental health, learning competence, coping, and interpersonal competence, but no significant difference in resilience and self-esteem was found. Most adolescents had a good impression (58.3%–100%) and high or moderate participation (91.7%–100%) of each intervention session. The intervention is feasible and acceptable, and shows preliminary effect in improving Tibetan adolescents’ psychosocial well-being. Future research can tailor this resilience intervention to other developmental stages of adolescent survivors in other contexts with a large sample to benefit wider populations.

Community disaster risk reduction practices have been tested repeatedly in the past decade. In Canada, for example, Ottawa-Gatineau and cities across Alberta have experienced numerous disasters, garnering widespread media coverage. Along with their families, youth were impacted by these disasters, but they also contributed to the response and recovery efforts in their communities. In this paper, we present a critical discourse analysis of the journalistic coverage of five Canadian disasters, including the Alberta floods (2013), Fort McMurray wildfires (2016), Ottawa-Gatineau flooding (2017 and 2019), and the Ottawa-Gatineau tornadoes (2018). This study is part of a broader project focused on the representation of high-risk populations in disaster-media. In this paper we discuss how disaster-media portrays youth, and their contributions to disaster preparedness, response and recovery. We inductively analyzed 259 articles across the five disasters to identify and document the patterns of discourse in news media around youth in a disaster context. Our findings reveal that the Canadian disaster news media framed youth using fives lenses: 1) the vulnerable status of youth; 2) youth as passive bystanders; 3) adult-centered narratives in media coverage of disasters: children as a burden on adults; 4) youth as active agents – jumping into adulthood; and 5) youth as a ‘legitimizing criteria’ in disaster response. The results of our study point to a need for a shift in the framing of youth in disasters to highlight their assets and actual/potential roles in disaster risk reduction efforts. Media can help to shift the narrative around youth by avoiding reductive, one-dimensional representation of youth as vulnerable victims.

There is great potential for adolescents to play an active role in disaster response. Yet a dearth of evidence limits efforts to provide age-appropriate services and roles after emergencies. Sixty-nine adolescents (51% female, ages 13–19) and 72 adults (47% female, ages 22–66) participated in key informant interviews and focus group discussions in disaster-affected areas of China and Nepal. Using inductive content analysis, several themes were identified as key to adolescents’ needs prior to and following disaster exposure. Safety and security emerged as a central issue, interconnected with preparedness training, timely and equitable disaster response, psychosocial support, and adolescent participation in risk reduction. Adolescents’ contributions to disaster response were varied and substantial; including involvement in rescue efforts, delivering first aid, conducting security patrols, transferring building materials, caring for family members and assisting with health education. Participants forwarded a number of recommendations, including stronger systems of protection and family reunification, investing in psychological support, and the delivery of disaster-specific education and skills based training programs. The recognition of adolescents’ potential to contribute to rebuilding after disasters is imperative, as is the development of services that take into account their specific needs.

Colegio Ingles is the largest and oldest school in the city of Iquique, the capital of Chile's northern Tarapaca Region. In accordance with the School Evacuation Plan, a drill was held in 2013 with the entire student body (n = 1600). The majority of the students had experienced the 2014 Pisagua earthquake.

Considering the school's exposure to natural disasters and the experience of its students, we studied the perspectives of k-12 students relative to their school's evacuation plan for a major disaster, such as an earthquake and a tsunami.

The study applied a qualitative methodology for in-depth exploration and insight into the students’ perceptions of the school evacuation plan. The methods applied were: (i) focus groups and (ii) individual mapping exercises. The participants recruited (n = 31), included children between the ages of 11 and 18 years old. The collected information was analyzed through a thematic analysis using NVivo 11 software.

The results flagged significant issues that had not been considered during the development of the school evacuation plan, such as the family dimension, which in some cases is contradictory with the school evacuation plan, as well as the need of redefining the safe zones from a multidimensional perspective.

More participation from children in the local planning of the school evacuation plan was seen as necessary in order to strengthen their preparedness in case of disaster, integrating their school evacuation plan and their family ones.

In Iran, disaster preparedness for children has been instituted since 1990. However, to date, no extensive work has addressed the concept of drawings by preschool children on the subject of earthquakes. Consequently, this pilot study aims to demonstrate that by employing tools such as drawings which engage children to think, preschool children are able to demonstrate the extent of their learning and knowledge as well as their perception. In this 2012 study, the “content analysis” technique has been used. Two hundred and two preschool children, aged 5–6 years, from nine kindergartens in four areas of Tehran (Iran) were asked to draw pictures about earthquakes. These children have been already taught about earthquakes but have no previous experience. The study analyzes the content of drawings of each child, who were separately asked to explain their drawings. The findings were reviewed by checking with a pediatric specialist. Features that were observed from the children's drawings included: using color to indicate anxiety and fear; using parts of the body in taking shelter from earthquakes; providing as well as seeking assistance at the time of disasters; and appropriate (safe) and inappropriate (unsafe) places for sheltering. The drawings were analyzed, key elements were extracted and suggestions have been made. This study is original as it explores the perceptions and knowledge of those children who have been taught about earthquakes, but have no physical experience of it. This research is significant because it shows that, even at a young age, complex cognitive processes were engaged for learners to use their knowledge within the context of their own art, illustrating it to others through drawings.