The Role of Schools in Mediating the Academic, Social, and Psychological Effects of a Forced Evacuation on Youth

University Of Texas At Arlington, Arlington TX

Investigators

Abstract

This study examines the role of schools in helping youth adopt to their life after the catastrophic event of Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of Gulf coast residents, both affluent and poor, moved to Fort Worth, Texas. Schools possibly provide the foundation for families and adolescents to become adapted to their new life. The study is would examine sociological, and psychological influences on the social and academic outcomes of children and their families who were forced to move to new neighborhoods. The study would describe the characteristics of the adolescents evacuated to Fort Worth area, measure psychological and social well-being (such as anger), examine school response to needs of new students, and study the reaction of local homeowners, churches, and governments. The study would obtain information from 300 adolescents moved to Fort Worth, interview parents of the adolescents, interview principal and teachers in the schools of the adolescents, and interview leaders of local organizations. The researchers intend to develop reports that will be disseminated at educational land sociological conferences, seek publication in journals for those fields, create reports on best practices, and seek to report their findings to the media. The theoretical perspective of this proposal is taken mostly from sociology and education with some reference to psychological concepts of well-being. The research question is centered on how adolescent children adjust to totally new environments forced on them by relocation. Many of the relocated students are minority who may be moved to majority dominant schools. The investigators would obtain information from students, families, and school leaders to better describe the types of adjustments that were necessary and how well they were accommodated. They would investigate how the institutional structures of family and schools help, or not help, students adjust to an entirely new environment forced on them by destruction of their New Orleans homes.