Multi-natural disasters in Gonaïves Haiti: long-term outcomes among child and adolescents and social support.

In this article, we posit the hypothesis that the January 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince reawakened a number of traumas linked to the natural disasters that struck Gonaives in 2004 and 2008. The study set out to evaluate the PTSD and social support in the affected areas in Gonaives seven years after the disasters. The study covered a sample of 917 participants, of whom 534 (58.23%) were females, aged between 10 and 23 with an average age of 16.03 (SD = 2.65). A variety of scales were used: the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-1); the Traumatic Exposure Severity Scale (TESS); the PTSD Check-List Civilian version (PCL-C); the Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R) and the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ). The results reveal a higher rate of PTSD among the oldest participants, a similarly higher rate of social support among Catholics than among Protestants, a more severe rate of PTSD among school going children and a positive correlation between social support and PTSD.