Children of Katrina
Winner, Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award, Association for Humanist Sociology, 2016
Outstanding Scholarly Contribution Award of the Section on Children and Youth, American Sociological Association, 2016
Honorable Mention, Leo Goodman Award, Methodology Section, American Sociological Association, 2016
When children experience upheaval and trauma, adults often view them as either vulnerable and helpless or as resilient and able to easily “bounce back.” But the reality is far more complex for the children and youth whose lives are suddenly upended by disaster. How are children actually affected by catastrophic events and how do they cope with the damage and disruption?
Children of Katrina offers one of the only long-term, multiyear studies of young people following disaster. Sociologists Alice Fothergill and Lori Peek spent seven years after Hurricane Katrina interviewing and observing several hundred children and their family members, friends, neighbors, teachers, and other caregivers. In this book, they focus intimately on seven children between the ages of three and eighteen, selected because they exemplify the varied experiences of the larger group. They find that children followed three different post-disaster trajectories—declining, finding equilibrium, and fluctuating—as they tried to regain stability. The children’s moving stories illuminate how a devastating disaster affects individual health and well-being, family situations, housing and neighborhood contexts, schooling, peer relationships, and extracurricular activities. This work also demonstrates how outcomes were often worse for children who were vulnerable and living in crisis before the storm. Fothergill and Peek clarify what kinds of assistance children need during emergency response and recovery periods, as well as the individual, familial, social, and structural factors that aid or hinder children in getting that support.
From the first sentence (‘For Cierra, the sound of Katrina is the sound of ‘people screaming’ ’), readers will be riveted by this account of a seven-year research study into the lives of children who experienced Hurricane Katrina.
With their clear analysis of the trajectories of New Orleans-based children following the hurricane, Fothergill and Peek’s contribution to this series is nothing short of outstanding.
...meticulously detailed and powerfully written longitudinal study of the children and families of Katrina.
If there can ever be an authoritative work on the experiences of children following a catastrophe like Katrina, this is certainly it.
Fothergill and Peek offer detailed recommendations for improved disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts for children and youth in each of the spheres they studied...The arresting subject matter and the authors’ thorough and honest approach make this book a critical addition to the field. Although written for a wide audience, it would serve as an especially useful read for policy makers in charge of disaster recovery.
This book is beautifully written and highly engaging. Fothergill and Peek offer new concepts regarding recovery from disasters and rich interview data based on groundbreaking team ethnography. The scholarship is sound and exemplary.
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating event for the country, but it will not be the last; this volume speaks for the children of Katrina, and for the children of disasters yet to come. . . . The individual stories are often heart-wrenching. The implications are enormous.
Alice Fothergill is a professor of sociology at the University of Vermont.
Lori Peek is a professor of sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
- List of Figures and Tables
- Foreword by David M. Abramson and Irwin Redlener
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1. The Youngest Survivors
- Chapter 2. Children, Youth, and Disaster
- Part I. Declining Trajectory
- Chapter 3. Daniel: Cumulative Vulnerability and Continuing Crises
- Chapter 4. Mekana: Disaster as Catalyst
- Part II. Finding-Equilibrium Trajectory
- Chapter 5. Isabel and Zachary: Resource Depth and Long-Term Stability
- Chapter 6. Cierra: Mobilizing Resources
- Part III. Fluctuating Trajectory
- Chapter 7. Jerron: Misaligned Spheres
- Chapter 8. Clinton: Rapid Movement
- Conclusion
- Appendix A. Who Counts as a Child?
- Appendix B. Studying Children and Youth in Disaster: A Note on Methods
- Appendix C. Recommendations for Improved Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Efforts for Children and Youth
- Notes
- Index
Caught in the Path of Katrina
A Survey of the Hurricane's Human Effects
By J. Steven Picou and Keith Nicholls
