Studies from University of Wollongong Yield New Information about Physical Geography (Dilemmas, Decision-making, and Disasters: Emotions of Parenting, Safety, and Rebuilding In Bushfire Recovery)

2021 FEB 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx Science Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Physical Geography. According to news reporting out of Wollongong, Australia, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Increasing numbers of households are impacted by disasters due to population growth, increasing development in higher risk areas, and climate change. While emergency management in Australia aims to reduce quantifiable losses, lived disaster and recovery experiences are relatively mute, with implications for mitigation and post-disaster support.”

Financial support for this research came from Australian Research Council.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Wollongong, “This paper draws on findings from a research project that set out to examine the role of insurance in household recovery after the 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires in New South Wales. Among the 19 interview participants, prioritisation of the needs of children was found to hinder personal recovery. Drawing on this key finding, this paper focuses on parents’ emotion work and emotions surrounding home. Innate desires to provide good care monopolised parents’ emotions and emotional outlets, as they worked to conceal threats and (re)establish a sense of normalcy. Emotion work drained parents, as did threats to, and the loss of, ‘home’ created through ‘dwelling.’ When homes burnt, so too did memories of children embodied in that home - memories that had permeated the material space. This sense of loss intensified when informing children about losses - an act that breached parents’ protective instincts and necessitated additional emotional care. Emotions escalated as capacities for care were challenged or eroded in the absence of home contents that normally would have anchored daily routines and provided stability. Replacing such items dominated parents’ recovery efforts - efforts encumbered by competing recovery demands, yet facilitated to some degree by insurance safety-nets. These emotions impacted parents’ mental and physical wellbeing in the four years that separated the bushfires and the interviews. While there is considerable literature outlining parents’ role in lessening disaster impacts on children, few studies examine parents’ capacity to do so.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “In addressing this gap, this paper highlights avenues to improve psychosocial aspects of disaster recovery.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Dilemmas, Decision-making, and Disasters: Emotions of Parenting, Safety, and Rebuilding In Bushfire Recovery. Area, 2021. Area can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Area - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-4762)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Eliza de Vet, University of Wollongong, Sch Geog & Sustainable Communities, Wollongong, Nsw, Australia. Additional authors for this research include Scott McKinnon and Christine Eriksen.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12696. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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