“That was the last time I saw my house”: The importance of place attachment among children and youth in disaster contexts
Place attachment is important to children and youth’s disaster preparedness and recovery
The focus of this literature review is on children and youth’s place-relevant disaster experiences. Included are experiences relating to both natural and human-made disasters; excluded are disasters related to war and armed conflict. Place attachment — described as the affective–cognitive bond that forms between people and their important places — is discussed in relation to the central role it plays in the human experience of disasters. Developed in this review is the idea that place attachment may be an especially relevant factor in children and youths’ experience of disasters. This premise is based, in part, on the understanding that children and youth rely on place for key aspects of their biopsychosocial development.
Included in this literature review is a discussion of normative place attachment in children and youth along with an examination of how the processes involved in such attachment are applicable prior to, during, and after experiencing a disaster. Place attachments are likely to increase children and youths’ pre-disaster resilience, thus offering a protective effect. They can also motivate young people’s engagement in disaster preparedness and may improve their ability to detect and address local hazards that support pre-disaster development. Following a disaster, place attachments can aid in children and youth’s recovery and bolster their resilience moving forward.
Normative place attachment in childhood is characterized as being formed and reinforced by repeated matches between a child’s needs and the environment’s affordances. Favorite places, in particular, are known to support a number of needs and activities central to children’s development including emotion regulation, restoration of attention, and problem-solving. For a child, a favorite place becomes a safe space with psychologically restorative properties. Common places of childhood attachment include outdoor places in nature, built structures – such as a porch or shed – which children have re-purposed for their own uses, their bedrooms and homes, certain community settings (such as libraries and schools), and places designed specifically for play, such as parks and playgrounds.
Researchers conducting this literature review conclude that places and place attachment can help children and youth recover from disaster-related trauma, especially when the places possess features that are psychologically restorative, such as nature. One of their related recommendations is to include children and youth in post-disaster restoration efforts, including efforts to re-green the environment. Such efforts, they suggest, can help children and youth develop place-related mastery and environmental competence.
Citation
Scannell, L., Cox, R.S., Fletcher, S., Heykoop, C., (2016). “That was the last time I saw my house”: The importance of place attachment among children and youth in disaster contexts. American Journal of Community Psychology
