Clinical Implications of Cultural Differences in Factors Influencing Resilience Following Natural Disaster: A Systematic Review

Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, floods and earthquakes not only damage and destroy the land, sea, forest and other resources vital to peoples’ livelihoods but also impact the lives of the victims in an adverse way: physically, mentally, emotionally and economically. In the immediate aftermath of disasters, unaffected individuals and organisations often feel compelled to help in whatever capacity may be available to them - including the provision of psychosocial interventions. However, there are also risks involved with providing psychosocial interventions including unintentional harm due to “disaster tourism” or “parachuting”. It is not uncommon for those providing psychosocial interventions to violate cultural and social norms in ways that negatively impact the recovery process, and potentially impede resilient outcomes. Hence, the aim of the review was to identify and describe the psychological consequences, the types of interventions as well as resilience and coping skills of survivors of natural disasters, namely earthquakes, hurricane, tsunami and flood across different cultures. Twelve studies were identified for this review and PTSD was the most common psychological consequence identified. Even though there were some differences in resilience and coping strategies of natural disaster survivors, on a microenvironmental level, social support appeared to be common. On a macro-systemic level, community factors, such as community services, cultural factors, spirituality and religion contributed to resilience across several cultures. However, psychological interventions adopted varied across different cultures. In addition to understanding the culture, spiritual, and beliefs of the disaster survivors, the importance of working with appropriate community operations and adopting culturally sensitive screening instruments in the future cannot be overlooked.