Children’s emotional reactions after landslide disaster in Indonesia: a qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to explore the emotional reactions of children after a landslide disaster.
METHODS: This is a qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study. A total of 11 junior high school students who were victims of landslide disasters were selected by purposive sampling techniques. The data collection tool was created in form of semi-structured interview guidelines and obtained through in-depth interviews related to emotional reactions using recording tools on each participant. The data processing was carried out by listening to the verbal descriptions of participants from the recording device, compiling verbatim transcripts, and analyzing based on specific statements through the coding process, categorization, and grouping to form themes.
RESULTS: The participants are junior high school students consisting of female (n=6) and male (n=5) students who suffered losses of house and family members. Totally, five central themes are identified related to the emotional reaction of children after the landslide disaster experienced: “shock,” “sad,” “fear,” “anxiety,” and “powerlessness.”
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The results showed that children who survived a landslide but lost their home or family have a negative emotional reaction that disturbs psychological well-being. Therefore, negative emotional reactions of the landslide victims affected the mental health and academic achievement of children in school. Hence, psychosocial nursing care is needed for children who survived landslide to create a comprehensive disaster nursing program and prevent psychological problems. This program starts the process of mental health nursing assessment and collects accurate data from the children who survived a landslide disaster. Based on this result, psychosocial interventions from mental health nurses are needed to help children cope with the negative emotional reaction on post-landslide disasters.