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Gender Differences in Psychological Reactions to Hurricane Sandy Among New York Metropolitan Area Residents

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Abstract

Hurricane Sandy was a natural disaster of large proportions—a category 3 storm at its peak intensity that struck New York Metropolitan Area on October, 2012. The death and destruction caused by a hurricane can rise numerous of mental health vulnerabilities such as, acute stress disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Gender has been identified as one critical variable that can impact vulnerability to adverse effects of trauma, as well as how these reactions are managed. The present research provides an evaluation of gender differences regarding posttraumatic stress symptoms, recollections of national disasters and fears of future negative life events. It also aims to explore information seeking and sources of assistance that were utilized during Hurricane Sandy. An online survey sample of 1,000 people from New York Metropolitan Area completed a battery of self-report questionnaires four weeks after the storm. Results revealed that recollections of national disaster and fear of future events were found to be significantly different among women compared to men. Additionally, women were more inclined toward information seeking through Facebook than men, although no gender differences emerged when examining sources of support. The results indicate that disaster practitioners should tailor gender sensitive interventions.

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Conflict of interest

Yaira, Yuval, Amit, Robin, Krzysztof and Menachem declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

‘All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation -School of Social Work at Ariel University, Israel and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.’

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Ariel University, 8 Maklish st’ Petach Tikva, 4955807, Ariel, Israel

    Yaira Hamama-Raz & Menachem Ben-Ezra

  2. Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Yuval Palgi

  3. Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Amit Shrira

  4. School of Social Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

    Robin Goodwin

  5. Department of Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, USA

    Krzysztof Kaniasty

  6. Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

    Krzysztof Kaniasty

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  1. Yaira Hamama-Raz
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  2. Yuval Palgi
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Correspondence to Yaira Hamama-Raz.

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Hamama-Raz, Y., Palgi, Y., Shrira, A. et al. Gender Differences in Psychological Reactions to Hurricane Sandy Among New York Metropolitan Area Residents. Psychiatr Q 86, 285–296 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-014-9333-3

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