Giving Compass' Take:

• This article from the Daily Illini details research done on the ways young people across different cultures handle trauma in the wake of natural disasters.

• How can this data help inform programs and other relief efforts after hurricanes, fires and earthquakes?

• Here's a more detailed guidance for donors about disaster recovery.

Tara Powell and Kate Wegmann, assistant professors in the School of Social Work [at the University of Illinois], have collaborated on a study that found an adolescent’s cultural background and demographics may alter their coping behaviors after facing a natural disaster.

“When I was a social worker, what I found was there were a lot of programs that were available for children just targeting mental health symptoms, but there wasn’t really anything out there trying to amplify their strengths and coping,” Powell said.

As part of a larger puzzle, Powell said more research like this needs to be conducted to create programs focusing on building children’s and adolescent’s strengths to overcome trauma rather than focusing on negative outcomes, such as post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression and anxiety disorders.

“One thing that Dr. Powell and I agree on is that we’d like people just to be more aware of the ways that coping might influence not just how a person copes but also what sort of resources that are available to them,” Wegmann said.

The research used data collected at Tulane University through survey results taken six months after Hurricane Katrina. A sample of 650 middle-class adolescent girls ages 13 to 18 who lived in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, were asked questions about their day-to-day behaviors after the disaster.

Read the full article about cultural differences affecting young people's coping mechanisms by YooJin Son at The Daily Illini.