@article{ref1,
title="Post-traumatic stress and growth among medical student volunteers after the March 2011 disaster in Fukushima, Japan: implications for student involvement with future disasters",
journal="Psychiatric quarterly",
year="2015",
author="Anderson, David and Prioleau, Phoebe and Taku, Kanako and Naruse, Yu and Sekine, Hideharu and Maeda, Masaharu and Yabe, Hirooki and Katz, Craig and Yanagisawa, Robert",
volume="87",
number="2",
pages="241-251",
abstract="The March 2011 &quot;triple disaster&quot; (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident) had a profound effect on northern Japan. Many medical students at Fukushima Medical University volunteered in the relief effort. We aimed to investigate the nature of students' post-disaster involvement and examine the psychological impact of their experiences using a survey containing elements from the Davidson Trauma Scale and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. We collected 494 surveys (70 % response rate), of which 132 students (26.7 %) had volunteered. Volunteers were more likely to be older, have witnessed the disaster in person, had their hometowns affected, and had a family member or close friend injured. In the month after 3/11, volunteers were more likely to want to help, feel capable of helping, and report an increased desire to become a physician. Both in the month after 3/11 and the most recent month before the survey, there were no significant differences in distressing symptoms, such as confusion, anger, or sadness, between volunteers and non-volunteers. Volunteers reported a significantly higher level of posttraumatic growth than non-volunteers. Participating in a greater variety of volunteer activities was associated with a higher level of posttraumatic growth, particularly in the Personal Strength domain. There may be self-selection in some criteria, since students who were likely to be resistant to confusion/anxiety/sadness may have felt more capable of helping and been predisposed to volunteer. However, participation in post-disaster relief efforts did not appear to have a harmful effect on medical students, an important consideration for mobilizing volunteers after future disasters.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0033-2720",
doi="10.1007/s11126-015-9381-3",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11126-015-9381-3"
}